


quarantined.

by justme (silver_spring)



Category: A Song of Ice and Fire & Related Fandoms, A Song of Ice and Fire - George R. R. Martin, Game of Thrones (TV)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Attempt at Humor, Awkward Boners, Doctors, F/M, Hospitals, Quarantine, Realism? What Realism?, Whatever the opposite of slow burn is, halp, why did i ever think, writing multi-chap was a good idea?
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-10-02
Updated: 2017-10-07
Packaged: 2019-01-08 01:45:01
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 12
Words: 27,504
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12244704
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/silver_spring/pseuds/justme
Summary: They'd never been overly friendly with each other, but there's nothing like getting stuck in a small room together for second impressions.





	1. Prologue - Day 0

**Author's Note:**

> My contribution to JBweek 2017.
> 
> There are certain tropes that I like. Arranged marriage (could never pull off writing it) or being stranded in deserted places (did try, failed), for instance. Being locked up together is another one and this one I perservered in trying to put to paper (or a word doc, as it were), owing in parts to the encouragement of the JBchat girls. Thank you for being excited about the prospect of this story, it's kept me going. Not sure if I've done your expectations justice, but it is what is and it's not gonna get better if I keep staring at the pages for another 4 weeks, lol. 
> 
> Disclaimer: This story does not fit any of the words for the JB week motto or the motto itself. But it's got pretty much only JB in it, so that's a kind of appreciation too.

  

1 - Day 0

What a long day.

Stretching her arms above her head and rotating her neck until she felt a satisfying *crack*, Brienne Tarth waited for the elevator to come and take her back to the ground floor. Her shift had been over already about forty minutes ago, but as it happened so often, there was a little unpaid overtime. Working in an ER and clocking out on time didn't necessarily go well together in one sentence. For the most part, she didn't mind. Helping and treating patients was why she was here, and duty was duty, no matter what time the clock on the wall read. Besides, it wasn't like someone was waiting at home for her to get back on time. She did hope though that she was going to be able to sneak away quietly and quickly once she was back down on her floor, before a fellow doctor could try to pass another patient off to her, since she 'was here already'. It had been a long shift. Even though 'her' hospital was not the biggest in King's Landing, there was hardly ever a lull in her working time and actually that suited her just fine that way. She loved medicine, she loved being busy. It was only that her feet didn't always agree with her enthusiasm.

The elevator finally ping-ed its arrival and she shuffled in, leaning against the back wall with a sigh. There was only one elderly man in there, who gave her a look she was rather familiar with. Brienne was 6'3'' tall, muscular, with a broad make-up free but freckly face, hair just long enough to be able to tie it in the back and no noteworthy curves in the chest department, so it was unfortunately hardly the first time someone looking at her wore plainly on their face that they were wondering for a hot second if she was a woman or not. Though, to be fair, in this instance the funny look might have also been because of the red spattering on her scrubs top. In any case, the elderly man left on the next floor down and she had the elevator all to herself.

The blood on her clothes came from the reason she had been up in surgery in the first place. A car accident, involving a father and ten year old daughter. The child had been lucky, considering the circumstances; there were a few lacerations and lots of bruises, but the worst thing that had happened to her was an open fracture in her right forearm from where she had tried to brace herself upon impact. Still, with the shock and the blood and her dad being treated himself in the other trauma room and therefore not being with her, the poor girl had understandably been in hysterics. Brienne had finally managed to calm her down somewhat though, holding her uninjured hand once she had the time to do so and talking to her while Doctor H'Ghar, one of the ER attending physicians, treated the little girl's minor injuries. When the surgeon had come to take her upstairs to fix the fracture, the girl had asked Brienne to come with her and of course, Brienne had smiled and told her she was going to stay with her until she went to sleep for a while. Just before the anesthetist had put her under, word had come that her mom was on the way and that dad was going to be alright. Now the little one was getting a few plates and screws in her arm and once she woke up, her parents would be with her. It had been nice to know how it all had turned out; a lot of times she was left wondering what happened with her patients once she had passed them on to other departments, and that was one drawback of her job; more often than not not knowing how it all continued for the people she saw. Having more time for each patient would be awesome, but it was also never going to happen. She simply had not the time to follow up on all of them, as much as she wanted to. At least today she'd gotten to see a happy ending, and the Seven knew there could never be enough of those in a hospital.

Arriving back down in the ER, the coast seemed clear for a quick getaway. Brienne wrote some final notes in a few charts and then went to the doctor's lounge to go and change. Before she headed out, she went back to the front desk and checked that her shift hadn't changed. Looking at the rotation plan for tomorrow, she gave a sigh. She was going to be on with Dr. Lannister as the attending. That itself wasn't all that new, since they often worked the same shifts. But usually there were enough other doctors around to minimize direct contact with, what she liked to call him in her mind, The Grumpy Lion. Most of them wouldn't be around to play buffer tomorrow though, since Nurse Gilly and Sam Tarly from administration were getting married and had invited pretty much the whole ER staff. Brienne had regretfully declined her invitation since someone had to stay back and work, even though they were going to be closed to trauma cases. There were other doctors working here that knew the happy couple far longer than her and would have more reason to attend. Though, truth to be told, she wasn't sad about not having to dress up and maybe even put on a dress. As for Lannister.. well of course Brienne couldn't be sure, but she guessed he was the exception to 'pretty much the whole staff had been invited' and hadn't received an invitation. After all, he was infamous for barking, or roaring if you wanted to stay in the lion metaphor, at nurses, fellow doctors and patients alike. And when he was not barking, he was more often than not sarcastic, rude, mocking, or all of it together. In short, he was not very popular. For the first two months after she'd begun working at St. Visenya's, he'd called Brienne either Brian or Dr. Tart, no matter how often she corrected him. Meanwhile, after a night shift months ago when some patient had insisted on using medieval vocabulary and called her thusly (the patient had eventually been picked up by the psychiatrist in the morning), he stuck with calling her wench, and Brienne, although annoyed by it, tried to remember the fact that it at least meant he no longer teased her about looking unfeminine by calling her a man's name. Okay, so she truly wasn't very feminine, or pretty, but that didn't mean you wanted to hear it from someone that looked like he'd stepped out of an issue of Sers Health with their perfectly tousled blonde hair and chiseled jawline. (Yes, she had looked at him extensively and yes, she had liked what she saw. Then he'd opened his mouth.) Not to mention it simply made her look highly unprofessional when she was in the middle of an exam and he poked his head through the open door and called her "Dr. Wench". His own unprofessionalism was already bad enough. Just last week, he'd brushed a patient asking for some amoxicillin off by saying "Antibiotics don't help with a cold. Neither do they help against your obvious stupidity, but the good news is: Your cold will go away on its own."

Horrible bedside manner aside though, he was a fantastic physician. Which was likely the reason none of his many appearances in front of a hospital committee had led to more than a proverbial slap on the wrist. In the trauma room, when they had life-or-death situations, Brienne was willing and eager to learn from him. He never lost focus, stayed solely focused on the patient in front of him, he always had a backup plan in case some medication didn't work sufficiently or fast enough and more than once, he'd diagnosed some obscure poisoning within minutes while everyone around him was still wondering why the urine bag had blue content or the patient was still seizing in spite of having gotten treatment against it. He had all the confidence in the world. That was something she still needed to get better with. The calmness and utter trust in her abilities and that they would see her through. Oftentimes, she still made sure to present to someone whenever the slightest doubt came to her mind, and there was a lot of room for second guessing when every decision could have immediate effect on someone's life. So far, she'd never been wrong about anything, but she just felt safer having her diagnosis confirmed. However, Brienne was optimistic the self-assuredness would happen with time. After all, she'd only been a doctor for barely two years whereas Lannister had more than 10 years on her in experience. And she was a lot better already than she had been when she'd started, especially since she'd gotten her own medical student to supervise last july. Something about having to show Pod how things worked and how to be a good physician made her bring her A-plus-plus-game. Well that, and wanting to avoid Lannister's roar. Which would be hard if they were only three doctors on duty. Maybe it was time to become a little more self-reliant with her patients.

Oh well. That was going to be tomorrow. For now, Brienne was ready to go home, make herself a quick dinner and collapse on her couch.  
With only rudimentary staff and being closed to severe cases, it wouldn't be that all that bad anyway.

Brienne had no idea how much she had jinxed herself in that moment..


	2. 2 - Day 1

2 - Day one

 

This day sucked balls. Jaime Lannister hadn't even been inside the hospital for five minutes when the first crisis had hit. After changing into his green scrubs he'd wanted a big cup of the muck that passed as coffee around here for his breakfast, but to his mild devastation, the pot was empty. Then he remembered that Nurse Gilly, the one that usually brewed the brown dishwater, was not here today due to tying herself to nervous Tarly from bookkeeping. Then he remembered that the ER was seriously understaffed today because everyone was off to witness the nuptials of Sam and Gilly or, if you wanted to use a fitting portmanteau, Silly. Of course, this was the day when the waiting area was so packed it practically was one patient short of bursting. And still no breakfast plus he had dinner with his father and a whole bunch of nice things to be called, such as underachiever, to look forward to. The only highlight so far had been when he saw that it was gonna be him and Doctor Wench today. The goody-two shoes, 'are all your t's crossed and i's dotted?' giantess. That woman wouldn't know a joke it it jumped at her. Which usually made riling her up all the more fun. He couldn't help it; there was just something about her and her reactions that made him poke and prod again and again. It wasn't that he didn't like her, truly not. She may have still been a little green and, as far as he was concerned way too serious, but she definitely had potential as a doctor and was out of everyone on this floor probably the one he tolerated most. So keeping her on her toes or sending her through the 'boot camp of Jaime Lannister' only would make her even better and be helpful in the long run. Plus, the way she always looked to the floor or started scuffing her sneakers against the linoleum, and her blotchy blushes whenever she felt slighted, embarrassed or annoyed were amusing. And lately, every once in a while, she even came up with a comeback which was more than could be said for almost everyone else he worked with. Most people tried to either suck up to him, were intimidated by his family name or disliked him on principle for it (natural side effects when one's father was an unpopular politician). She at least made work a lot more entertaining and they had a nice tease-ship going on.

So far, he hadn't seen much of the wench, though. A glimpse here and there as she was with a patient or in discussion with her student. Lately, it almost felt as if she were avoiding him, and of course that made seeking her out all the sweeter. But it would have to wait. First there was the next patient to deal with. Theon. A regular customer that either came in on a gourney with an OD or on foot in search of something to tide him over until his next fix. Looking at the chart, Jaime put his money on drug seeking and went to pick up the twitchy addict for closer inspection.

***

Theon in fact did try to get some painkillers out of him, but only because he was already here anyway and he stopped after two uninspired attempts when he saw that he was not gonna get anything from Jaime except for a shot of antibiotics since the problem was something else. Something pus-filled that needed to be lanced and drained. Lovely. Still, Theon had tried, and so Jaime had not been wrong, therefore he decided to reward himself with a sandwich. Once it was over and done with, and after a stern talking to about needles and how you not share them no matter what is promised in return, he made Theon follow him to the storage room and bid him wait outside while he got something for him.

"Listen: You run out, you come back and ask for me. If I'm not here, you wait or come back the next day. Got that?" He asked as he returned and put 10 insulin syringes in Theons hand.

"Yeah.." The addict waved him off dismissively.

"I'm serious. You're lucky I didn't have to pack that crater with gauze or else you'd be back the day after tomorrow."

"I got it, Doctor L." Theon whined, clearly wanting to leave now that he had been treated.

"Then off with you. And _don't_ call me that." As Theon was leaving, Jaime pulled the clipboard from the storage room to make a little change in the inventory..

"What are you doing?" A voice came from behind him. The wench. Busted.

"Hmm?" He tried to play innocent, calmly putting the clipboard away again.

"You just gave this guy a handful of ready to use syringes."

With a sigh, Jaime turned around to face her, arms crossing in front of his chest. She was fixing him with a serious look. "Why are you asking if you already know, hm?"

"You can't do that! It's not right!"

"And yet, I just did. Don't get your granny panties in a twist, wench. It's fine."

The mentioning of her unmentionables got her to check out the linoleum under her feet once more, but she didn't let that distract her and so, after this very short detour, her head snapped up again.

"It's against the law!" She insisted.

"It's against the law!" Jaime mimicked in a mocking tone, rolling his eyes. "Thanks for the observation. I actually knew that already, but do you wanna know something? I'll rather bend the rules a little every now and then than have him come back with another big ass abscess from sharing his one dirty needle with 25 friends. Or not coming back with that and maybe dying of sepsis. And you can either accept that and turn a blind eye or march your gargantuan giraffe legs up to HR and snitch on me."

In all honesty, her long legs were probably her best feature, but we wasn't about to tell her that. Her thinking he insulted her did the trick. She blushed, huffed and stormed off. Not in the direction of the elevators though, but to pick up her next patient chart from the front desk. _Good wench_. He still stuck his tongue out after her before strolling to the cafeteria for his sandwich. It took a lot more than Theon the tweaker and his forearm of doom to spoil his appetite.

***

"Doctor Lannister? I need a consult." The wench began immediately upon finding him on the couch in the doctor's lounge with his food. Not stopping to chew down on his breakfast, Jaime made a rolling gesture with his sandwich-holding hand for her to continue.

"27 year old male presenting with fever of unknown origin over the span of seven days, has developed a rash three days ago. I thought it was just chickenpox or measles or even just an allergic reaction, but none of it adds up. The rash is only on his face and neck and-"

"I'll take him." Jaime interrupted, his mouth still half-full.

"I don't want you to take him, I want you to help me figure this out. He's my patient."

"What do I get for my efforts?"

"Excuse me?"

"Would you be a good wench and...say, go on a coffee run if I fix up your patient?"

"I don't--"

"Or delegate. You have a student, don't you? That stuff from the cafeteria doesn't do it for me. Tell him I want coffee, black, strong enough for a spoon to stand on its own in the middle of it." He put his thumb and index finger a fraction of an inch apart. "And a teeny tiny bit of creamer."

"Podrick is a third year medical student, he's here to learn how to treat patients, not how you take your coffee. Now, are you going to help me or do I need to page doctor Tully from internal medicine to come down here? I believe he's on today."

Ugh. Eddie Fishpants. Living proof that theoretically highly evolved species without a functioning brain could survive a prolonged time. The last thing he wanted that wet towel to think was that there was a case he couldn't handle or for which he needed said wet towel's help. Shoving the rest of his sandwich in his mouth and washing it down with soda, Jaime got up from the couch.

"This better be good, wench. I'm currently holding back the mother of all burps."

**

Jaime had seen this before. Granted, it had only in a textbook and a long time ago, but it had been an image that stuck. Grabbing two surgical masks from a carton on the sideboard, he thrust one at the wench before putting on the other one.

"Put this on."

"What? Why?" She asked while doing as he'd said.

"Because if this guy has what I think he has, we might be fucked in the not so pleasurable way." He whispered.

"And what might that be?"

" _Variola Dornensis_."

"Dornish smallpox?!" The wench exclaimed, so he had to shush her with a sharp nod at the patient and a shake of his head. Quieter, she continued. "With all due respect, doctor, no one has seen Dornish smallpox outside of a lab in..20 years. They're as good as extinct."

"In our part of the world maybe, but there are cases in the far parts of Essos and Southyros. I honestly hope you got your vaccinations." He turned to the patient. "Ser? Have you been abroad recently? Within the last few weeks?"

"I took a backpack survival tour through parts of the Red Waste. Came back only a week ago. That's when the fever started. But man, it was awesome."

"Bingo."

"It could still be coincidence," Dr. Wench insisted, "I've already drawn blood and--"

Jaime shook his head. "You're wasting time. White, deep-seated pustules of same development, centrifugal distribution, sparing the trunk. It's all the classic symptoms."

Great. Just what this day had needed. A potential outbreak of a disease that was supposed to have been eradicated. And only three and a half doctors on the floor.

"Put a mask on the guy and keep him here. No one enters this room, wench, got that? No one. How long was he sitting out there in the waiting area?"

"I..I don't know." She stammered, looking back and forth between him and the patient. "A while?"

"Well, fuck!" Running his hand through his hair, Jaime calmed himself. "Okay. Okay. The good news is: There is still vaccine and we're not in some rural town on the ass end of the country, so we should be able to get it fast. Who's responsible in a situation like this?"

"Public health department?"

"Are you asking me or knowing?"

"I.." She took a deep breath and that seemed to ground her."Knowing. I know. It's the public health department."

"Call them. Tell them to get their asses here yesterday. What else?"

"We can't let anyone leave that might have been exposed for a prolonged time. They could be incubating the virus already."

"That's right. No one leaves until the guys in the sealed suits show up and take over the show. We gotta lockdown this place and hold the fort until then. You make the calls, I calm the masses, we reconvene here. Let's chop, Tarth!"

 

Luckily, the department of public health knew had a lot more experience on how to deal with a crisis like this and they were fast enough to get there before any patient in the waiting area could cause trouble. As soon as the disease control guys arrived, everything sped up into a blur and it felt like it had been only minutes before he and the wench were being put into hazmat suits and quickly marched up to the fourth floor and into a decent-sized room. Two beds, a small table with plastic two chairs by the window, a tv set that looked like its best years were well behind it mounted to the wall and a door leading to a small bathroom. Very sterile-looking, very white, except for the framed copy of an old painting depicting flowers.

"Due to the unknown origin of the infection, we will just be extra cautious. If you need anything doctors, there's a phone, but refrain from abusing it. A nurse will come with your meals and spare clothes and toiletries. Is there anything else you need?" The guy who'd escorted them rattled off, clearly wanting to get back to where the cleanup took place as Jaime took off his suit. "No? Well, I guess we'll see you in ten days then." With a tap of his gloved hand against the visor of his mask, he turned and left, shutting the door and locking it from outside.

"Wait! What about my room?" Dr. Wench called after him. Jaime flopped down on the first of the two beds, the one by the door, folded his arms behind his head and crossed his ankles.

"We're a small hospital. This room actually is half our isolation ward. The patient is in the other half."

"I can't share a room with you for ten days" She said, shaking her head. It sounded rather funny through the full mask.

"Oh please. We both know it's a dream come true for you. Having all this to yourself." He smirked, pointing to himself.

"Don't make me throw up; the windows likely don't open." She muttered, before stopping in her tracks as she realized what she'd just said out loud, looking like pillar of salt in neon yellow. It made him grin.

"They don't. Wouldn't want to release pathogens into the air."

"This is ridiculous! I've been vaccinated, you've been vaccinated. We're not gonna get it."

"That is thankfully true, but we still got a shitload of exposure to the virus and and it could be also a different serotype and then..why am I even explaining this? You should know all of that yourself. We're not only here to protect us, but also to protect everyone else _from_ us."

The wench's shoulders slumped down. "You're right." Looking around their small room, she seemed to accept their momentary fate and finally began to take her protective suit off as well. "Maybe it's not going to be that horrible," She pep-talked herself. "Ten days. It's.. like a school trip. In a way."

"I went to an all boys boarding school, so.." Jaime trailed off and gave her a once-over, ending in a smirk "Huh. What do you know? You're right."

Her eyes narrowed dangerously, but except for a huff there was no answer. Walking over to the unclaimed bed, she threw herself on it, bunched up the pillow and turned to the side.

"What are you doing?"

"What does it look like?"

"You can't sleep now. Who's gonna entertain me?"

"Entertain yourself."

"Ah..but I've been taught not to do that in a lady's company."

"That is so gross."

"You know, if you sleep now, you won't be tired when it's actually time to go to sleep.."

"I don't think so, but just in case: I'll worry about that later. Now, be quiet please."

She pulled the blanket up and over her head and said no more, leaving Jaime bored and severely tempted to break into song, just to piss her off. But then he figured that for now it was probably best to keep the peace. After all, they were going to be stuck here for a while. So he actually did what she had requested and kept his mouth shut. After an annoyed and loud exhale, he curled up in the other direction and tried to get some shut eye too. His earlier assessment had been right. A day that sucked balls. And now he had ten days with the most dour person of his acquaintance to look forward to. In a small room without escape. Or cable tv. Still. As he was drifting off, he thought that it still could've been worse. At least he'd gotten out of dinner with his father.


	3. 3 - Day 2

When Jaime woke for the second time, it was already light outside. He wished he would've gotten at least one moment of confusion about his whereabouts and be able to pretend to be at home, but the crappy bed he was lying in made that impossible. No, he was still in an isolation room in the hospital and sharing that room with the wench. The quietly sleeping wench.

  
_Somewhen after he'd fallen asleep yesterday afternoon, the inner door to their temporary humble abode had been unlocked and the not so dulcet tones of nurse Bronn's voice had roused them both from their naps. Bronn was actually in the orthopedic department, but it was known that he was up for basically anything as long as he got paid overtime. He was hardly recognizible under the surgical gown, cap and mask, but it didn't take more than him speaking six words for Jaime to know it was him._

  
_"Wakey wakey, put away Mister Snakey!"_

  
_"Don't make me kill you Bronn" Jaime replied the same time the wench asked, "What?"_

  
_"My thoughts exactly. What. Y'all are in here, undisturbed, and you're not fooking? Is the mood lacking? Ya need anything to get started? Fairy lights, an Obie M. cd, handcuffs..I can get you all kinds of stuff if your credit is good."_

  
_"Excuse me?" Roomie asked, sounding insulted._

  
_Bronn turned to Jaime._

  
_"She's one of those, huh? Prim and proper and all that? Silent waters is all I'm sayin'.." He trailed off, with a wink and, although Jaime couldn't see it he just knew it was there, a dirty grin._

  
_"Why are you here?" Jaime asked, pinching the bridge of his nose. He felt a headache coming on. Great._

  
_"Oh. Right. Supplies." Bronn left the room for a moment to pick something up from the short corridor to the outer door that served as decontamination area._

  
_"We have: Scrubs..green and blue so you have some variety, an 8-pack of disposable underwear for each of you..and socks. If you need more, you only need to ask. Or go commando. Divide that up yourselves, would you? Be right back with the rest."_

  
_Dumping the heap of clothes on Jaime, Bronn left yet again to return a moment later, his arms full again._

  
_"Toothpaste, toothbrushes, they're identical so you may wanna mark them somehow..generic soap, bar and liquid, shampoo..razor and shaving cream..does the lady need tampons or another feminine hygiene product?"_

  
_"Oh...err..t-thank you, that won't be necessary" The wench stammered out, getting suspiciously red in the cheeks again when he threw a short glance in her direction. Jaime was tempted to roll his eyes. Granted, menstruation wasn't his favorite topic in the world, but it was hardly something to blush over. Especially in the company of medical professionals. Especially when the woman herself was a professional physician. It was then he realized his mood needed an adjustment; A blushing Doctor Wench was always a treat, no matter the reason._

  
_"Has anyone called my brother yet?" Jaime asked, when Bronn was making his third trip to the lock corridor._

  
_"I haven't seen the lil bugger here, so I'm guessing no." Bronn shouted back._

  
_"Well then, do that. Tell him to tell my father I'm indisposed until further notice. And tell him he better not use his spare key to my apartment."_

  
_"Yeah yeah, if I don't forget. Now...dinner!"_

  
_Dinner had consisted of a standard patient meal, and it tasted exactly how it looked, so when Bronn, after bringing them a big water bottle each, prepared to take his leave until next morning when he was going to bring breakfast, Jaime took him up on his offer of extra deliveries for an additional fee and ordered a shit ton of candy. Calories and soul food in one. Deciding to be nice, for a positive climate in the room and whatever, he even asked the wench if she wanted anything, his treat. She declined, however, apparently not bothered by unspiced meat loaf and limp green beans._

  
_Afterwards, they had divided up the clothes and made themselves at home as much as was possible. There had been some talk about their patient and how he might be doing, the wench had unnecessarily apologized for Jaime being here, they'd watched a lame episode of The Tonight Show with Varys and finally, she had claimed the bathroom first.  By the time Jaime had returned from brushing his teeth and freshening up once it was his turn, she'd already turned to the other side again, the lights switched off. Mumbling a "Night, wench", Jaime had crawled under his blanket again as well and fallen remarkably fast asleep. Probably out of boredom._

  
Now he was wide awake and something needed to happen today or else he may just go nuts, so naturally he got up with as much noise as possible to wake his sleeping roommate ending in a slam of the bathroom door. After all, he couldn't have the wench think she was going to get dibs on that room every time now.

  
By the time he re-emerged, he'd had missed Bronn bringing them breakfast. But apparently, he took his assignments serious since a big plastic bag containing his order was waiting on his bed.

  
"Good morning, Doctor Lannister." The wench said, sitting with her tray by the window. His own was across from her, so he went to take a seat, digging in.

  
"Mornin'. Anyone ever tell you that you snore?" He began their day with a big, fat lie.

  
She looked up from her toast, eyes wide and a pink hue of embarrassment already blooming on her cheeks. Up this close, he realized her eyes were really nice.

  
"Oh! I'm sorry. I--"

  
"But then again, so do I which makes it even, I guess. In any case it's not too bad. Did Bronn say anything?" Jaime interrupted, deciding to put her out of any misery quickly.

  
"I asked him about the patient. No news."

  
"At least he's not getting worse then. No news at this point may as well be good news."

  
The wench nodded solemnly.

  
"Nurse Bronn also said that Doctor Tully will do a check up on us later when he's done doing rounds."

  
Jaime groaned. Of all the doctors in this hospital, of course it had to be him. Having Jaime in a room, not allowed to escape was probably the stupid trout's wet dream. Disgusted with that analogy and what it chain reactioned into in his brain, he shook his head.

  
"Do me a favor and cough on him."

  
"What? Why? And why me?"

  
"He's dumb but not that dumb. He'll be wary of me doing exactly that, but you look innocent enough for him to not expect it. Come on! He'll be in full protective gear and safe, I just want to see him twitch a little."

  
"I will most certainly not cough on an esteemed colleague to make you happy."

  
"Fair enough, no pranking of _esteemed_ doctors. So that means you'll cough on Tully?"

  
"I will not." She declared with finality.

  
"Spoilsport. You come up with something fun to do then."

  
"How about just doing the time? We could ask for some books and quiz each other on diseases and treatment."

  
"Well, that's..dull."

  
"Dull is fine."

  
No surprise she thought so; Jaime had seen the way she dressed..

  
***

  
True to her word, the wench did not cough on Eddie Fishpants. In fact, she did even better than that, albeit not on purpose. As Tully was standing next to her bed and had just finally finished drawing some blood for viral testing, she sneezed on him. Twice. It was awesome. Tully spazzed around like a fish fresh out of the water, Doctor Tarth stammered out apologies and Jaime snickered.

  
"Well done, wench!" He called over which made her face even redder and stammer out even more apologies. Tully, that humorless bastard, didn't try once to make her stop, he simply left the room to change his protective surgical outfit and came back for Jaime's blood. However, if that idiot thought he'd get close with a needle to one of his veins, he was even dumber than Jaime had imagined.

  
"Gimme." He declared upon seeing the tourniquet. "I'll do it myself. I've just seen you draw blood, five year olds have more luck pinning the tail to the donkey."

  
"That is against protocol." Edbore Dully replied snobbily.

  
"Well, then it's not gonna happen." Jaime declared.

  
"Lannister, why you always insist on being difficult, I have no idea. You're hostile, you're cocky, you have no respect for your colleagues and if it were up to me, your contract with this hospital would've been terminated a long time ago, right about the time you got kicked out of surgery. There is a protocol which we follow with patients and not letting them draw their own blood or treat themselves is part of it. Right now, you're not a doctor, but a patient. Now give me your arm and let's get this over with."

  
"Hmmm..how bout no."

  
"Fine, have it your way. I'll have security come in here and hold you down."

  
His face was of course hidden beneath the surgical mask, but the shit-eating grin he must've been sporting was audible. The asshole was enjoying this. Jaime fixed him with an angry glare and stared him down for a moment or two. He was not going to take this.

  
"Nice bluff. You can't do that; without my consent it's assault."

  
"You're a potential danger to others and the blood test is necessary to determine how big a danger. If I show them pictures of what Dornish smallpox can do, any judge will write the court order faster than you can blink. So what's it gonna be, Lannister?"

  
"You slimy, little--"

  
"I'll do it."

  
Both men turned their heads to the Wench that had already gloved up during their standoff and was now standing in the doorframe to the lock corridor.  
"You're a patient too." Tully explained as if she were very slow in the head.

  
"I am, but I am also still employed here and as you said yourself, hospital policy is not to let someone perform procedures on themselves. As far as I know it doesn't say anything about drawing a colleague's blood; in fact we do it all the time."

  
"This is ridiculous! You both are! You'd think I was planning to cut off his hand, the way you're behaving." Pointing his gloved index finger at Jaime, Tully finished with a snide "The board will hear of this."

  
"Will they also hear how you threatened to use physical force on a patient? Because if not, I will gladly tell them." Doctor Tarth gave back immediately. Jaime blinked slowly. Twice. He hadn't thought she'd have that in her, what with all the talk about esteemed colleagues and whatnot, and even though he could see her getting a little fidgety under Tully's glare, she held her shoulders-set-chin-up stance and he was kinda impressed. So impressed, he wordlessly offered his arm in her direction while shooting his best, eyebrows-raised ' _You were saying, dickhead?'_ look into Fishpants' direction.

  
"You know what? Do what you want. I'll pawn your cases off on Snow." Tully spat and shoved past the wench to get to the door. She exhaled loudly once it slammed close.

  
"You know what would've made this intervention perfect?" Jaime broke the silence Fishpants' dramatic exit had created.

  
"Coughing on him as he left?"

  
"Exactly."

  
"I felt it was wisest not to overly antagonize him, but I can't in all honesty say I didn't think of it." Doctor Tarth replied with a tiny smile.

  
"Wench, there is yet hope for you. Well, have at it, vampire."

  
Leaning over him, she prepared the crook of his arm, and Jaime leaned back, closed his eyes and prepared for a series of uncomfortable little pricks since he knew his veins were not the best for blood-drawing. Usually it took about 3-5 tries to get some juice out of him, even with his own nimble hands, since the little fuckers transporting his blood insisted on being difficult. So he was quite surprised when there was only one barely-there stab before she opened the tourniquet.

  
"You have really bad veins." Doctor Wench commented as she was pulling the full vacutainer tube off and got a cotton pad for him to press on his arm once she pulled the needle too.

  
"Yup. Imagine the bloodbath Fishpants could've started."

  
"I thought you just didn't want him to do it because you dislike him."

  
"Well, that too. Anyway, thanks. You're good at this."

  
"Thank you." She gave him a surprised look upon hearing that little bit of praise. Damn. Those were really astonishing eyes when they were this close.

  
"But we better ring the bell for someone to come take these to the lab, or else you'll have to do it again."

  
"On it."  
  
Since it was close to lunch time anyway, Bronn picked up the samples when he brought them their food. Once more, he announced himself with a line about them fucking and commented subsequently on his disappointment they weren't 'sticking it to the man' by having sex in the workplace while on paid leave. As he was about to leave after some chitchat and having provided them with the lastest gossip without having been asked to do so, Doctor Tarth spoke up.

  
"If we could perhaps get some medical journals and books?"

  
Jaime made a buzzing sound.

  
"Scratch that order right away, Bronn." Turning to his roomie, he grinned. "No homework on this school trip, sorry."

  
The wench thought for a moment.

  
"How about some board games from the pediatric ward?"

  
"You'd steal board games from sick little children, wench?" There she went, impressing him for the third time today.

  
"Not stealing!" She immediately objected, "Only borrowing. We will give them back."

  
Oh well. Two out of three wasn't so bad, either.

  
After Bronn left with a rather unenthusiastic "See what I can do" due to the fact that borrowing wasn't something that paid him anything, Jaime decided it was time to break into his stash for dessert.

  
"You want some?" He asked as he was sitting cross-legged on his bed, picking out the first candy bar to devour.

  
"Oh. Oh no. I couldn't. He charged you an additional 50%."

  
"Is that why you didn't take up my offer? Because you thought I was being ripped off?" Jaime chuckled. "Don't worry wench. I may be slumming it as a doctor in a substandard hospital according to my parental unit, but I still can afford to buy some chocolate, even at Bronn's pricing. Here."

  
He tossed her a packet of gummy bears that she caught with lightning-fast reflex. Waving off her thanks, he proceeded to tear into the impressive selection of sweets. It wasn't that he was getting soft or anything; she had after all impressed him twice already today. And munching down on candy while the other person in the room could only watch was rude anyhow.

  
"Wanna watch daytime talk shows?"  Jaime asked, picking up the remote he'd claimed as his yesterday already which technically didn't leave her much of a choice.

  
"Uh..sure. Why not? I usually don't watch those."

  
"Oh? You're in for a treat then. I think there's one of those paternity test episodes on today. Someone's bound to get smacked."

  
Getting comfortable on his bed, he clicked through a few channels until he found what he'd been looking for just as some guy broke out into the "You're not the father"-dance of joy.

  
So far, this day hadn't even turned out to be half bad, although Jaime reserved final judgement until after he saw whatever Bronn foraged from peds. He wouldn't put it past that fucker to bring them twister and a bottle of baby oil.


	4. 4 - Day 3

Brienne felt restless. She'd always been someone that needed to have to do something, and being cooped up in a hospital room for the third day now was something that went against her grain. Slacking off just wasn't her thing. All that time she could've been using for something meaningful or sensible. She still felt that being quarantined was overmuch. Three days now and neither her nor Doctor Lannister had even shown the slightest reaction to having been exposed to the smallpox. She could've treated dozens of patients during these three days and now the rest of the ER staff had to work extra to make up for her and Lannister missing from the rotation plan while they were stuck in this room. At least, so Doctor Snow had informed them this morning when he came by after rounds, their smallpox patient was finally doing better and was expected to make a full recovery.

Still. Idly sitting there with nothing to occupy herself for the better part of the day was unnerving and Brienne could feel herself getting somewhat irritated. Especially since Lannister seemed as happy as a clam doing nothing.

  
Those daytime talk shows he was watching again, because apparently they also were on in the afternoons, were just idiotic. _I refuse to wear clothes, Lie detector scandals, I'm in love with my uncle's dog._.granted, Brienne didn't go out all that often, but working in a hospital had brought her in contact with all kinds of people, and no one she'd met had been as crazy as the folks sitting in front of a screaming audience, confessing to things like slathering meat extract all over their body for kicks.

  
She should've really insisted on these books and journals.

  
"Oh good Gods! Who still breastfeeds their child when it's already old enough to order takeout with money he's earned himself? Did you see that? Wench?"

  
"Hmm? ..Yeah."

  
"Something wrong?" Lannister asked, sitting up and turning to her. "Are you feeling alright? Warm? Take your temperature."

  
"I'm fine."

  
"Humor me."

  
With a roll of her eyes Brienne picked up the ear thermometer and did as he had asked.

  
"98.5. I'm not getting sick. Just bored."

  
"How can you be bored when the Baelish show has the biggest nutjobs of them all?" Lannister asked, lying down again and pointing with the remote towards the tv.

  
"You don't really believe these are true stories, do you?" He didn't seem that naive to her.

  
"The scars on the guy that claimed to have fucked a bear seemed real enough. Anyway, who cares if it's real? It's entertaining."

  
Brienne merely shrugged in a 'if-you-say-so' manner.

  
" _A dynasty of dragons_ is on as well if you're more into soaps."

  
"I'm not."

  
"Too bad then, because I'm not offering to become a victim to your scrabble skills again. One annihilation was enough."

  
While crushing him during their game last night had been a sweet victory it wasn't something Brienne needed to repeat either for the foreseeable future. He was not exactly what one would call gracious loser. He'd gone into the bathroom for his nightly routine grumbling under his breath and when he'd returned about 15 minutes later he'd still been mumbling to himself about how just because something wasn't in the dictionary it didn't mean it wasn't a legitimate word.

  
"These are all rather mindless activities. I just..I feel like my brain is in atrophy and this is all not helping."

  
"I'm not quizzing you on diseases" He replied, shaking his head, "Not doing it. This is vacation, start acting like it."

  
"This is not a vacation. We're in quarantine."

  
"Well, are you working?"

  
"No." Unfortunately not.

  
"Are you home?"

  
"No, but--"

  
"Are we getting our meals delivered to our room?"

  
"What?"

  
"See? It's just like being on vacation. Granted, it's not one I'd ever book, because the hotel sucks, but still."

  
He was playing dumb on purpose and that was something Brienne in general didn't appreciate. Playing dumb on purpose always implied that the one playing dumb thought the other one was stupid enough to not see through it and today, of all days, she was not in the mood for any of that.

  
"For one, if this were a vacation, I would be allowed to actually leave the room and..do things. And two, I wouldn't share said room with anyone. This is..more like prison!"

  
"I think they make you work in prison."

  
"Argh!" Brienne exclaimed, sitting up. "You are so missing the point! Prison, vacation, whatever! The point is we are not here for a fancy break. We are locked into a room, we are not allowed to leave it and it's driving me crazy to sit here all day, twiddling my thumbs and having to listen to nonsense like this!"

  
"Nonsense? I thought I'm being quite funny wench."

  
"Can you not please stop calling me that?" Brienne gave back in exasperation.

  
"What? Wench? Why? Usually it never bothers you."

  
"Usually, I try my best to ignore it, but it's all I've heard for three days now and I can't stand it anymore. It's belittling!"

  
"It is not!" Now he bolted upright as well, the stupid talkshow in the back forgotten. "It's..it's..our thing! It's a nickname!"

  
"You don't hear me give you any nicknames, do you?" Grumpy Lion didn't count when it only happened in her head.

  
"Well, you could, who's stopping you? You're the one that insists on calling me Doctor Lannister every single time you address me."

  
"What else am I supposed to call you? It's your name."

  
"I can't come up with a nickname for myself, genius. And even if you can't either, here's a shocker for you: Some people call me Jaime. Because that's, you know, my name. After two years of knowing each other, you're free to use it."

  
"Well, my name is Brienne, not wench! Calling me that is mean and unfitting, especially when you do it in front of a patient. It makes me look like an amateur, which I am not. You always do that, with everyone. You intimidate us, yell at everyone and talk as if we were all morons compared to you."

  
"Well.." He shrugged and trailed off in a 'I didn't say it, you did' kind of way. Brienne glared at him.

  
"Oh no, you don't! I have the same qualifications as you."

  
"Then why don't you use them some time?" Lannister threw back, now getting a little louder as well.

  
"Excuse me?"

  
"Just because it's not me you're asking, doesn't mean I don't see it happening. You're always second-guessing yourself, asking for second opinions. Stop doing that, do your job."

  
"It is part of my job to make sure. And this is a teaching hospital." Brienne defended herself.

  
"Yeah. But you're not a student anymore. If you want me to treat you like an, what did you call it again?, esteemed colleague, start acting like a pro. I'm not here to hold hands or sing campfire songs with anyone. I'm here to save lives. And I may be an ass, but I know my shit and knowing my shit gives me the right to call everyone that should know theirs but doesn't a moron."

  
"So I'm a moron?" Brienne asked, her eyes narrowing.

  
"I didn't say that."

  
"You also didn't not say it."

  
"When I think you're an idiot, I will call you an idiot. Trust me, I have no problems with that."

  
"Obviously."

  
"Forget it," Lannister said, pinching the bridge of his nose and taking a breath to calm down, "Listen: This is a pointless argument that is not even about what's really bugging me or you: You want to be in a shitty mood, be in a shitty mood. But don't take that out on me when you're the reason we're here in the first place. That's when you'll walk into a problem because I am not down for it."

  
"I said I was sorry for getting you involved!"

  
"And I said it's fine! Doesn't change the fact that you're barking up the wrong tree when you're yelling at me in frustration over being locked up."

  
"Well, clearly it's not _fine_ if you're bringing it up again," She replied sulkily.

  
Lannister rubbed his hands over his face and mumbled something that sounded suspiciously like 'stupid, stubborn wench' before heaving a deep sigh.

  
"Do I wish I were at home right now, sleep in a bed that is actually comfortable, eat food that has actual taste and not see the most obnoxious nurse in the history of nurses three times a day? Of course. But it is what it is. We have another seven days to burn in this room, might as well make the best of it."

  
"I am sorr-"

  
"You're not listening. It's fine. It was fine yesterday, it's fine today, it will be fine tomorrow. Do you want me to get it tattooed? I wasn't bringing it up because I'm pissed at you or anything, but because I just don't like getting yelled at for things that I had no hand in. Anyway: Now that some steam has come out, do you feel better?"

  
Brienne took a moment to assess her feelings. Actually, she did feel a little better; short as the argument had been, it had taken the edge off. But also a little worse. The thought of being responsible for him being here lingered in the back of her mind, no matter what he'd said. In the end, she gave a slight nod.

  
"Good. Because that was your one free Yell-at-Jaime Card while we're here. Next time, I will fart or worse in retaliation. You have been warned. Now can I watch my show again? I missed the rest of crazy breastfeeding lady, but the next episode is titled Audience attacks. It's bound to be good."

  
"Sure. Go ahead."

  
The cheesy theme music had just started to play, when he muted the tv and turned to her again.

  
"Hey, wen---Brienne?"

  
"Yeah?" She asked, surprised and pleased that he'd used her name.

  
"I truly don't blame you for being stuck here. It could've happened to anyone, not seeing it's pox, I mean. Out of all the residents here you have the most potential, maybe that's why I expect a lot of you, but you're still...well, young. And it's a disease that's supposed to have been wiped out, a tough call to make."

  
"You saw it right away."

  
Lannister, or Jaime since he'd used her name as well, waved it off.

  
"Meh. I got lucky. I got this thing, it's not eidetic memory, but I remember pictures really well. And I remembered having seen those pustules before, that's basically all."

  
"I'll never miss it again." Brienne vowed.

  
"Hopefully neither of us will ever see it again. Can we close that topic now? It's really not worth turning this room into the ancient fighting pits of Mereen."

  
"Okay. Let's watch those fake guests yell at each other."

  
"Good call."

  
Instead of putting the volume up again though, he kept fiddling with the remote.

  
"You really think I tease you because...no, wait. You really think my teasing you is coming from a mean place?"

  
"What else?" Brienne shrugged.

  
"Well it doesn't."

  
She just gave him a look.

  
"Alright, maybe it started that way, maybe not, I'm not even sure. But it's not anymore. I just..like to keep you on your toes. And you're the only one that actually every once in a while speaks up when I lay into them, so.."

  
"So...you're just having fun at my expanse?" Brienne didn't quite know if that was actually better or worse.

  
"Not always, I mean, you do have moments where you deserve it, you know? So I can tell you right now, if you mess up, I will call you on it.  But it's not like it is with Tully for example. Him I can't stand, because he couldn't find his own ass with two hands if you know what I mean while he acts like he's the one that found the cure for greyscale. You, I tease. There's a difference. At least, to me."

  
"I didn't feel a difference."

  
"Well, there is one. And I like to think you're smart enough to figure out if I'm teasing you or pissed off for real. You're basically the only doctor on the floor I don't hate working with. Well, you and H'Ghar. And I liked Thoros Myr, but he left long before you began. Anyway, the point is: I thought you were in on the joke, I mean, you did start to dish out more. Which I like."

  
He seemed really contrite about all of this.

  
"Do you think you could maybe at least not tease or yell at me in front of my patients anymore?"

  
Jaime gave a long-suffering sigh.

  
"If you insist...I guess I can try."

  
"Thank you, Doctor Lannister."

  
He cleared his throat and looked at her expectantly, eyebrows raised. After a second, Brienne got it.

  
"Thank you, Jaime." She corrected herself.

  
"Unless you do or say something stupid enough to deserve it of course. In that case, anything goes." He amended.

  
"Right. Noted."

  
"Excellent."

  
He unmuted the tv and they both focused on the screen where someone just had jumped out of his seat, and was now running past the talkshow host. It seemed so fake.

  
"Whoa! Not 10 minutes in and chairs flying already! Told you, it's bound to be good!"


	5. 5 - Day 4

"I wasn't gonna tell you before it was a sure thing, but tonight we party." Jaime declared after lunch the next day, as they were once more making a dent in what remained of his candy. She'd tried to decline his offers a few times more, but he just kept ignoring her.

  
"Party?" Brienne repeated his last word, dubiously. Not that it was a concept she wasn't familiar with, but their current surroundings hardly made a good venue, plus what was there to celebrate anyway?

  
"Alright, tonight we get shitfaced" He clarified.

  
"Why?"

  
"Why not? Do you have any other pressing engagements that prevent you from joining?"

  
"I don't really drink.." In fact, so far she'd almost always put the brakes on whenever she started feeling tipsy. She had no idea what kind of drunk she was going to be.

  
"Well, tonight you do. I've tasked Bronn yesterday evening with smuggling two bottles of Riverlands fine strongwine in for us and he just told me he'll bring them with dinner. We've been cooped up in here for four days now and it's high time we do something fun."

  
"A hangover tomorrow is your idea of fun?"

  
"No, but that's for tomorrow to worry about. We need this after that slight outbreak of cabin fever yesterday. A nice, solid evening of unwinding and bonding now that we're officially on a first name basis and whatnot. Come on! Do it for the room climate, wen- _Brienne_."

Well, if he put it that way..

  
***

  
When Bronn came with their dinner, he indeed also brought yet another plastic bag. This one was clinking as he carried it over to Jaime's bed. A secretive smuggler he was definitely not, because Brienne couldn't imagine how he'd transported the bottles without making any sound. Probably no one out there cared what they did on the inside anyway.

  
"I threw some medication cups in there for glasses. And a lil something for mood, no charge. I'm off tomorrow, whoever drew the short stick will fill in, so thankfully I won't have to see your hungover mugs. Don't do anything I wouldn't do."

  
"Bronn, I don't think there is anything you wouldn't do."

  
"Well, I wouldn't do you Lannister, so there's something. Maybe the lady doctor will finally have mercy on ya, though. G'nite!"

  
Brienne hadn't needed to feel her cheeks to know they were once more on fire. Why Bronn kept up with all those innuendos about Jaime and her and...sex...she didn't know. It was so far out of the question that it wasn't even a question. They were in quarantine, for the Sevens' sake! Besides, they were barely friends and casual sex had never been her thing. In any case, Bronn's joking was starting to become old. Fast.

  
The lil something, thankfully, turned out to be just LED tealights. Brienne didn't know their mouthy nurse all that well, but with all his comments, she had feared it might be something way, way worse.

  
They sat down at the small table where they usually ate, but decided quickly that it was a setting that was too stiff and formal for an impromptu drinkfest.  So Jaime put the tealights on the floor, Brienne grabbed two blankets and they got comfortable in the space in front of the beds. She still wasn't all that convinced that getting drunk was a good idea, but she also was not about to be the proverbial party-pooper. Jaime was obviously trying to keep a good climate, she could meet him halfway.

  
"Here's to having made it through almost half the time." Jaime declared, raising his full medication cap. Since the little plastic containers were filled to the brim, they refrained from actually clinking them together for the toast. He slammed his shot back, while Brienne just sipped from hers. Ugh. If the fine strongwine from the Riverlands tasted like this, she did not want to find out how what counted as hooch there tasted.

  
"No, no, no, Tarth, you're doing it wrong. It's called a shot, you have to drink it quick."

  
"But it's horrible!" Brienne complained.

  
"I know!" Jaime laughed. "It's from the Riverlands, what do you expect? That's why you down it quickly. I promise the taste will be better by the second one already."

  
  
It wasn't, really. The stuff was still bitter and burned horribly in her throat. It did give her a warm feeling in her belly, though. That was nice.

  
"So..tell me something." Jaime began, getting comfortable on his blanket.

  
"Like what?"

  
He shrugged. "I don't know. Tell me how you decided to become a doctor."

  
"That's not going to make for a light-hearted drinking conversation."

  
"With that disclaimer...well, now I have to know."

  
Brienne drew her knees up and hugged her arms around them. Well, he'd asked, hadn't he?

  
"When I was four years old, my brother drowned. He was only eight."

  
"Shit. I'm sorry. Hey: You don't have to tell me any more if you don't want to."

  
"It's okay. It's been a long time and it's just the tip of the iceberg anyway. My brother drowned and about a year later, both my mom and baby sister died during childbirth. It was her third pregnancy and she wanted to give birth at home, because she had no history of complications and thought she was going to deliver easily just like with my brother and me. She had placental abruption which caused massive hemorrhage and deprived the baby of oxygen. Both times, with mom and Galladon, no doctor was around to help and maybe save them and I decided that that's what I was going to do when I grew up. Help others so that these things don't happen to them."

  
Which, of course, was a naive belief. Being a doctor didn't mean you could save everyone. Sometimes the Stranger just didn't let himself be shook off the person he'd chosen to claim, no matter how hard you fought to keep him off, but bad odds would never stop her from getting in the ring against him.

  
"We have that in common. My mom died during my brother's birth."

  
"Is that what made you become a doctor?"

  
"Yes and no. It piqued some interest in medicine, because I wanted to understand why this happened, and also because of my brother, but it took a few more years until I decided that it was something I wanted to pursue. To be honest, I watched a lot of Aemon, M.E. one summer I had mono, and I thought he was a cool guy. But I soon realized I'm not made for pathology. I didn't want to find out why people died, but keep them alive. Give me something I can cut out, or stitch up or just fix on the spot, you know? That's when I decided to become a surgeon and now, well, now I'm here."

  
"I had no idea you were in surgery once."

  
"It only lasted a year anyway." Jaime replied, making a dismissive hand gesture.

  
"Did you decide you prefer patients that are awake?"

  
That would've made sense in a way. Patients on the operating table couldn't talk back when he gave them a line, and he seemed to enjoy that part of his work a lot.  
"No, they kicked me out of the program. According to some people, I have a problem with subordination."

  
His face clearly showed that he didn't see it that way, and Brienne had to prevent herself from chuckling. Doctor Jaime Lannister was practically the poster child for insubordination.

  
"They would've kicked me out completely, but, and that was the only time I let him help me, my father talked them down with a generous donation and I was allowed to switch fields. Gods, did my residency suck."

  
"Did you not enjoy emergency medicine?"

  
"No, I did. I do, it's great. I just hated having to bite my tongue all the time and toe the line. Second chance and all that. It paid off though when they fell for it hook, line and sinker, made me an attending the first time I applied and I could finally be myself again." He ended with a smug grin.

  
"So your motivation for building your career is the fact that you can speak your mind more?"

  
"It's not the paperwork, that's for certain. But it does have its perks aside from having to suck up less. No one has to sign off on my charts, I can bend the regulations a little every now and then.."

  
"Like with that drug addict and the inventory the other day?"

  
"For example. Or get addicts into in-patient treatment faster. Or give away samples from the drug reps that try to sell me their stuff and things we have enough of in storage to people that can't afford the medications but really need them. Not exactly in accordance to hospital policy maybe, but it helps them be in better condition and healthier and that's what it's about."

  
That was actually quite admirable. Illegal, but admirable. Brienne couldn't help but think about how there was a quite decent guy hiding behind the rough outside.  
"If someone ever finds out exactly how much you give away in secret, your best case scenario is going to be getting fired." With losing his license or prison being the worse case scenarios.

  
 "Only if they do find out. Hey, why didn't you rat me out about Theon the Tweaker? The drug addict, I mean?"

  
"Because the right thing to do is not always the _right_ thing to do. I mean, he's a user and that's bad enough, so what little can be done to keep him in relatively good shape should be done. You can't force him into rehab, but you can help him have more time to maybe, hopefully, want to go there himself one day. And even if not, he's not gonna stop using if he hasn't got clean supplies, so it's not like you're making it worse by giving him sterile needles."

  
Jaime gave an approving nod.

  
"As I said before: There is hope for you."

  
"If his 25 friends show up and want free syringes as well, you may run into a problem, though."

  
"No plan is perfect. Let's drink to hoping that it doesn't come to that."

~  
  
They chatted some more about patient care and the hospital in general, all the while slowly but steadily working through the first bottle of strongwine. Brienne drank a lot slower than Jaime, but she eventually definitely felt a buzz. Usually that was when she stopped indulging, but not today. The topics changed again back to more personal matters, such as life outside work and hobbies and dating. Jaime left it at describing his private life as 'the driest of all dry spells' which was something Brienne should've done as well, because he wouldn't let up about details once she'd slipped up and told him she was currently not dating because of her last disastrous evening out with a guy. She didn't really feel like sharing, but the combination of strongwine and 'tell me'-puppy look eventually did her in.

  
"...and then he said it wouldn't matter because all women look the same in the dark."

  
"He did not!" Jaime exclaimed, rolling onto his back and laughing.

  
"He did." Brienne nodded seriously.

  
"Who says something like that?"

  
"I told you, his name was Hyle Hunt."

  
"Yeah, I mean..you know whatta mean. What did you do?" He asked, turning to face her again.

  
"I left." Brienne said as if it were obvious.

  
"You just left? No punches, no cursing?"

  
"I don't like to curse."

  
"You're too nice, wench. You should've kicked the soup out of that asshole."

  
Shrugging, Brienne emptied her sixth..or was it the seventh?..shot.

  
"Not the first time someone called me a freak."

  
Nor the last, she wagered.

  
"Not the first time you should've knocked a bitch out, then."

  
She shook her head. Bad idea, since the room seemed to spin a little afterwards.

  
"Goes against the Pycelleatic Oath."

  
"Only if you had clocked him during work hours. Devil's in the details."

  
"It's not like he was lying, you know? I am not an attractive woman."

  
"So you'll never be Westeros' next top model, so what? Big deal. You're too old for that, anyway. Doesn't mean you're not allowed to be picky. And that nutbag paying for dinner doesn't entitle him to anything."

  
"Actually, I paid for dinner. He said he'd forgotten his wallet at home." Brienne confessed. Jaime lost it at her deadpan delivery and laughed until he complained about his stomach aching before he then made her toast to having escaped that idiot. To make up for laughing at her misfortune, he told her the story of his worst date ever, a woman his brother had set him up with, that turned out to charge by the hour. Which he didn't realize for the longest time, only thought that she was the slowest eater he'd ever encountered, taking almost half an hour for her soup alone. The way he told it, with a bashful grin and a twinkle in his eyes, made Brienne think that he was really extremely handsome. Which was not a good thought to have, so she washed it down with another shot and forbade herself on the spot to think about that any further. They emptied the first bottle, and by the time the second one was cracked open and a fourth of it gone, they were playing a game of 'who had it worst?'.

  
~

  
"Okay, okay! I got something: Weirdest thing you ever pulled out of a patient. Go."

  
Brienne scrunched up her nose and thought. However, thinking definitely wasn't going as quick as she was used to anymore, so it took a while to find something in her memory. Letting her eyes wander, she saw that Jaime was looking at her peculiarly.

  
"What?"

  
"Hmm? Nothing. Ah..nothing." He shook his head. "I'm starting to feel the booze, is all. So, whaddaya got?"

  
"Plastic toy dragon." She grinned smugly, sure that it was gonna win this round. Jaime narrowed his eyes.

  
"Wait: Blonde guy, mid-twenties, bit on the choleric side?"

  
"Uh...yes?"

  
"I know him! I dug a toy dragon out of his ass once, too! Guess it's a tie."

  
"Damn!"

  
"I thought you didn't curse?"

  
"Oh crap!"

  
Brienne slapped her hand in front of her mouth, making Jaime giggle.

  
"That's not going to help, you know?"

  
"It is too!" Brienne mumbled from behind her hand.

  
"You are officially fried."

  
"I don't feel drunk. And I'm not slurring or anything. Just tired. I just have to lie down a while and then I'm good to go on. "

  
Slowly lowering herself from her slouched sitting position to the ground, Brienne folded her arms under her head and closed her eyes.

  
"Na-uh, no falling asleep on the floor. You'll never get up again until morning. Off to bed with you."

  
"No, it's okay. I can stay here. The floor is comfy." She replied stubbornly, already drowsy. There was a short moment of silence and then she heard rustling and footsteps.

  
"It's just tricking you. Come on, you'll thank me in the morning. Or whenever."

  
Grabbing under her arms, Jaime tried to pull her up, but Brienne wouldn't budge.

  
"You'll just make me fall."

  
"No, I won't. I'm strong enough. Up you go."

  
When he pulled again, Brienne let herself be helped up. And boy was that a good thing since the room was swaying around her as he was leading her to her bed. Once she was lying in it, he made her drink half her water bottle while he fetched her blanket for her.

  
"You're really nice. You're still assy too, but you're also nice." She felt like it needed to be said.

  
"Okay. Nice and assy. Good to know." Jaime replied as he was covering her with the blanket.

  
"How come you're not drunk?"

  
"Because I can hold my liquor better than you. It's probably genetic."

  
"Sorry the party is over already." Brienne mumbled as she was getting comfortable.

  
"It's alright. Once upon a time in the Westerlands is on, I'll just watch that for a while."

  
"K. It was quite nice though, wasn't it?"

  
"Yes, it was." He replied, and it sounded as if he were smiling. "Goodnight Brienne. Try not to hate me in the morning when the headache kicks in."

  
"I won't. Nite, Jaime."

  
The last thing she heard before sleep took her was the click of the tv being turned on.


	6. 6 - Day 5

Jaime lay in his bed, trying to think. Trying being the key word.

  
He really shouldn't have broken the seal on that second bottle. It had made him think strange things such as that Brienne, in the glow of those LED candles, almost looked beautiful. That thought had practically come out of nowhere, completely startled him and he'd forced himself to immediately forget ever having had thought it.

  
But now, unable to move since the slightest movement would cause another wave from the headache from the deepest of the seven hells, he couldn't help returning to that thought. Where had that come from? It was Doctor Wench! Tall, awkward, stickler for the rules, Wench. The same woman he'd worked with for about two years now, seeing her almost every day. And never, not once, had he thought anything of that kind. It was the alcohol, nothing more. It had to be. She'd always blushed; hell he even set out to make her red in the cheeks a lot of times. It was amusing, getting her flustered, it was a welcome break from the sometimes tediousness of his routine. It was not because it was cute! Though her drunken self, calling him..what was that made up word again?...assy, and snort-laughing over his weirdest-cases-ever stories had been somewhat, well..cute. When she'd realized her verbal filter was slipping and had slapped her hand over her mouth to keep any bad words contained, those big blue eyes wide and blinking fast, he'd found her downright endearing. Really, those eyes were ridiculous! He'd never paid much attention to them; most of the time he was rather busy when she was around, or she was, or he'd pissed her off again and she was looking to the floor or anywhere but him, so he'd never gotten much more than a short glimpse when there was no time to think about how astonishing they were. But ever since that first surprised look she'd given him over breakfast their first morning together when he'd commented o, okay..lied about, her snoring, he'd been made alert to their beauty. Those gorgeously sapphire-blue irises could be weapons of man-manipulation in the wrong hands..or face. If she ever discovered the power of a well-timed hurt puppy look, she was going to be unstoppable. Though she didn't seem the type to ever do that; she was too upstanding to try and and use guile to advance herself in a situation. Gods, what was he thinking? There must've been a lot of rest alcohol still coursing through his body.

  
It was a good thing their little drinking party had ended when it did.

  
Slowly turning to the side, he glanced at the woman preoccupying his hungover mind this morning. She was still fast asleep, facing him. She must've turned not too long ago however, because on her cheek were imprints of a bunched up pillow. Her hair was a bird's nest, and there seemed to be also a little drool situation going on. And yet..the way she had folded her hands beneath her chin and that tiny smile lifting the corners of her mouth..again, the word _cute_ came to mind. And he was sober while thinking it, more or less anyway. Ugh! This was the last thing Jaime needed and he immediately tried to scratch all these thoughts again. They had already been in this room too long, simple as that. He basically had nowhere else to look but at Brienne. As soon as they were out of quarantine, everything would go back to normal. And in the meantime, he was going to try and sleep that headache off some more.

  
***

  
When the nurse filling in for Bronn brought their breakfast, neither of them said much except for a short acknowledgement of the fact that someone was standing in the room. Jaime couldn't even tell who the nurse was, he hadn't bothered to open his eyes. Their food remained untouched, their bodies remained unmoving in their beds and that was how Doctor Snow found them when he came for his daily check up.

  
"I--I don't..the serology and cultures came back fine yesterday!" He boomed, panic in his voice. Jaime groaned.

  
Snow hurried over to Jaime's bedside and put his gloved hand on his forehead. He tried to shrug it off, but the man was persistent.

  
"No fever. Wha--"

  
"Get your hand off me, I just had the pain down to no longer excruciating!" Jaime complained. Man, his voice sounded like shit. Basically, he sounded exactly like he felt.

  
"Doctor Lannister, when did you get sick? How fast did you deteriorate? Doctor Tarth?" Snow rattled off, now hurrying over to Brienne's bed. She was meanwhile buried underneath her blanket.

  
"Doctor Tarth? Oh Seven Hells, Edmure is going to kill me, how could I overlook--"

  
"Calm down, Jon!" The nurse laughed, "They're not sick. They're wasted more like. Check out the bottles. There."

  
Ooops. Maybe putting them next to the door hadn't been the best cleanup.

  
"Oh. OH!" Came from Snow. Obviously he got it now.

  
"That is a horrible exaggeration, nurse..?" Jaime began, pointing his index finger in the direction of the female voice.

  
"Ygritte."

  
"Ygritte. Fine. Whatever. I'm most definitely not wasted. I'd love to be just to take the headache away, but I'm not. So why don't you go and be a nice nurse and get me some painkillers?" There was a little pause, before he added, "And some for my wench."

  
Since she wasn't awake to hear it, he figured it was okay to go back to the nickname.

  
"I guess we better postpone blood drawing until later. Want an IV? We're not supposed to administer these without cause, budget and all, but it might help with the hangover."

  
Jaime opened one eye a fraction and considered Doctor Snow.

  
"Well, look who took his head out of Tully's ass and decided to declare spring. Yes, please. Bring us the goods, Snow. We can manage the rest on our own."

  
He had no idea how good Snow was with the needle, but ever since the first morning and Brienne taking his blood, they'd helped each other in that regard and Jaime saw no reason to change that now, hangover or not. He trusted her with his veins.

  
"Ygritte, would you?"

  
"Sure, you don't know where we keep them anyway."

  
The nurse left to get them IV bags, and Jaime decided since he was awake now, he might as well open both eyes. Snow was still standing in between his and Brienne's bed.

  
"You want something else?"

  
"I'm not sure, actually. Maybe I should check on Doctor Tarth after all? She seems still asleep and we haven't been exactly quiet."

  
"ER reflexes. We can ignore almost everything. Watch and learn" Clearing his throat, Jaime braced himself for a, hopefully last, flaring up of his headache. Then he opened his mouth.

  
"Wench! GSW coming in, ETA three minutes!" He barked, before holding his hand against his temple and wincing.

  
As expected, the woman in the other bed bolted upright.

  
"Coming!"

  
Then her hand flew to her own temple and she groaned.

  
"Remarkable" Snow stated, amazed.

  
***

  
They told nurse Ygritte to not bother bringing lunch and had three pills of pain medication each instead, before hooking each other up to an IV drip and, once more, lying down. Even though, over the last few days, her regular self had become a bit more loquacious, hungover Brienne was not very talkative and that suited hungover Jaime just fine. She had a little nap, then he dozed off as well, and by the time he woke up again, finally felt okayish again. Good enough to pull that IV anyway. Since he'd had dibs yesterday, it was Brienne's turn to use the bathroom first for a shower, and so he entertained himself with the tv while he waited. Or tried to wait, before one of the side effects of pushing half a liter of liquid into his body over a short time kicked in..

  
"Brienne? Wench! I need to pee!" Jaime shouted over the sound of his fist banging against the bathroom door.

  
"I'll be quick!"

  
"That's not good enough! I need the bathroom, now! This is not a drill!"

  
"Just give me five minutes, I'm sure you can hold it that long."

  
"Do you want to live in a room that smells like piss for the next four and a half days? 'Cause that's what'll happen. You have the water running and I can hear it!"

  
"Okay, okay, I'm hurrying up."

  
Jaime shook his head. That wasn't going to be good enough. This was a right-now-or-it's-too-late-situation. Grabbing the door handle, he yelled a warning that he was coming in.

  
"Don't you dare!" Brienne yelled back but he'd already pressed down the handle and pulled open the door.

  
"Relax! Just stay behind your curtain, I'll be done in no time."

  
Jaime hurried towards the toilet, lifted the seat, pulled down his scrubs as far as necessary and answered nature's call with a loud and relieved groan.

  
"I hope you're sitting down!" Brienne called out.

  
"Yup. Totally am."

  
Once he was done, Jaime flushed, quietly put the seat back down again and went to the sink to wash his hands. Lathering up, he chanced a glance in the mirror to see if he was more or less back to normal already or still looked like a strongwine zombie. However, his gaze was soon distracted from his own face when he realized something behind him.

  
There was a gap between the shower curtain and the wall.

  
Granted, it was only a slim gap, but the angle at which he stood in front of the sink would be perfect to take a peek if he leaned a little to the left. So naturally, being who he was, he did.

  
At first, he didn't see much of anything, so he leaned a little more to the left, and that was when he got a glimpse of Brienne. A full glimpse of naked Brienne, to be exact. Naked Brienne's backside, to be super-exact. Or to be super-super-exact..

  
..A broad back of freckled skin, long toned legs, and by the Gods, if that wasn't the most perfect ass he'd ever had the privilege to behold! Hello! Who knew that she hid all this under her clothes?

  
He gulped.

  
"Are you done already?!" She called, beginning to sound annoyed.

  
"Uh...almost...H-Hygiene is important, you know?" Jaime gave back, unable to tear his gaze away or avert his eyes completely. She was all soapy, the same soap he'd just used on his hands. Sudsy water ran down her back and his eyes followed its journey down, down...right down the middle of those firm, round cheeks. A pleasant shudder ran through him and apparently took a lot of his blood with it downwards because those scrubs began to become uncomfortable.  Well, scratch that 'began'. He'd just gone from zero to full attention in probably new record time. Throbbing included.

  
"Geez, Jaime, are you washing your hands or scrubbing in for surgery?" Yup. She was definitely annoyed now.

  
"I'm..being thorough!" Thoroughly checking her out, anyway.

  
"I'd like to come out now, before I get all pruny!"

  
"Oh no worries, you're fine." He mumbled.

  
"What?"

  
"I said: I'm almost done, no need to whine!" He shouted, louder.

  
"You're still at it?! If this is a prank, I swear.." Brienne replied, ending in an unspecified threat. Jaime decided that maybe he'd seen enough, after all he surely didn't want to get caught, although the twitch coming from his pants seemed to be his dick disagreeing. He quickly shut off the water and grabbed the nearest towel to dry his hands. Then, he couldn't help it, he threw one last glance to the gap in the curtain. Brienne was just beginning to turn around! There was an anticipatory throb in his pants, almost painful in its intensity, and he knew he needed to get out of Dodge before he could see more of her lest something very messy happened.

  
"Done and gone!" He hurried to say and fled the room.

  
Leaning against the closed bathroom door from the other side, Jaime took a deep breath. And then another. What now? She was going to be out of there in the next few minutes, since, so he knew by now, she never blowdried her hair. It wasn't like he could take care of this right now, even though it certainly wouldn't take long. There was only one thing to do. Self-induced blue balls. He took another look down at his scrubs and the bulge and tried to think of some of the most disgusting diseases he knew. And even with that shit it took what felt like an eternity before his dick finally admitted defeat. There were still some twitches, but at least the boner of all boners wasn't all that obvious anymore.

  
Okay, so he hadn't gotten laid in a long while. But this was definitely not the longest time in his life he'd gone without some form of release. Then why had that had been so intense? He'd been about twenty seconds away from exploding prematurely like a 14-year old hormonal teenager, just from looking at a naked woman. Or half-naked woman, since he hadn't even gotten to see her from the front. He couldn't blame it on the alcohol; that was broken down by now. He couldn't blame his dry spell either, since he saw a lot of women in his day-to-day life; sometimes, due to the job, even in a similar state of undress. And not once had he reacted even slightly like just now. And if everything with him was as normal as it was supposed to be, then it had to Brienne's fault. How he could have ever compared her to a man he didn't know, but boy was he ready to eat those words now. Damn. How did one go from whatever over cute to bonermaking hot in the course of only a few days? Maybe it was a fluke?

  
Pushing off the door, Jaime shuffled over to his bed and threw himself on it, trying to look nonchalant in case the bonermaker came out of the bathroom. His own shower was long forgotten, even though his body still was calling to him for release. It seemed he had some thinking to do, since he had the strong suspicion this time those thoughts wouldn't let themselves be scratched.


	7. 7 - Day 6

Something very weird was going on with Jaime.

  
Ever since their drinking the night before last, he'd been untypically quiet. Also, Brienne had caught him more than once looking at her in a pensive manner, only to quickly look away once she caught him doing it. She'd asked him about it, of course, asked if something was wrong anyway, but she'd just gotten the universal reply of a shrug and a 'nothing' aka the surest sign that something _was_ wrong. She just had no idea, what. At first, she'd thought it was the hangover, the Gods knew her own didn't make her want to chat, but he hadn't gone back to what she knew as normal of him. She'd wrecked her brain, but everything past a certain point was blurry in the memories of the day before yesterday. What she remembered was that she had actually quite enjoyed herself and that Jaime seemed to have had fun as well. There had been lots of laughing.

  
Had she done or said something stupid or embarrassing?

  
Over the past few days she'd caught herself more than once thinking that underneath the mouthy, quick-witted exterior of a grumpy lion, Jaime was actually quite nice. Either that or he'd held himself back severely since they were moved into this room, which Brienne didn't truly believe. Especially since she'd told him about how she didn't find anything funny in being called 'wench'. He'd seemed genuinely perplexed that she'd considered it him being mean and made an effort not to call her by that name anymore. As far as roommates went, and she'd had a few of those during college and med school, he was quite pleasant to live with. Okay, so he had a penchant for trash tv, but that was only a tiny drawback. He cleaned up after himself, he, apart from that peeing incident yesterday, respected her privacy. He still shared what was left of his candy with her. And, on an unrelated note because it was completely irrelevant in terms of roommates but needed to be stated regardless, one would have to be pretty blind to not realize that he was extremely handsome. That was something she'd known from the moment they'd first met, but had never dwelled much on it on account of him taunting her all the time. A pretty face alone was just that. That pretty face had gotten some substance though this past week.

  
So maybe drunk Brienne had lost her filters and said something to him that had made him uncomfortable? After all, she was not the kind of woman men wanted attention from. Maybe he was trying to find a way to let her down easy since they had to share the room for a few days more? Not that there was anything to let down easy in the first place as far as she was concerned. He was nice and good-looking, but that didn't necessarily mean anything more than just that. Doctor Snow was nice and good-looking as well, that is, if one was into the brooding looking type. Perhaps she should give him a compliment next time he came by, so that Jaime would see that it was no big deal, whatever she'd said to him when she had been drunk. However, Brienne dismissed that idea again since a) she didn't know for sure if she'd even said something and b) her flirting skills were somewhere between non-existent and abysmal and stammering wasn't exactly going to help prove a point.

  
Still. Something had to happen to clear the air; quiet Jaime was too odd. And she hated the feeling of somehow having done something wrong.

  
Brienne got her chance to bring all of it up when they were, once more, lounging in their respective beds with Jaime wielding the remote like it was his sceptre and deciding another one of his talkshows, that were for some odd reason actually growing on her, was in order. Only that he didn't seem to pay all that attention. There was some woman from Asshai that claimed to have visions coming from some ancient fire God whenever she looked into open flames. So far however, none of those visions had come true and all she'd gotten for her troubles of constantly keeping a bonfire in her backyard burning was a bad wig the color of fire hydrants from leaning to close to the fire one time. And Jaime hadn't commented once on the whole thing, when usually he gave running commentary on the guests. Brienne sneaked a glance over to his side and lo and behold, he wasn't even watching the show, but instead watching her again with that contemplative look on his face. At least until she caught him; then he quickly diverted his attention to the tv again. This was getting-out-of-control-weird. Sighing, she began with an easy enough question.

  
"Are you alright?"

  
"Sure. Totally. Why wouldn't I be?" Jaime replied in a chipper voice, now not taking his eyes off the television.

  
"I don't know. I just..you're acting strange." Okay, so she wasn't exactly good at bringing up the elephant in the room. But at least she'd gotten the ball rolling, right?

  
"Who? Me? Nah! I..guess I just have a slight case of being locked in a room, you know?"

  
"If you're sure.." Or maybe the ball didn't want to roll after all. Brienne didn't believe him one word, but couldn't really force him to admit it, now could she?

  
"Positive. Hey, check this out: Another crazy wig lady, from Mereen! Damn, they have some shitty wigs in Essos."

  
He was totally deflecting and that was another big red flag that she just couldn't ignore. As much as she hated it, it was time to get more specific.

  
"Because if this is about the other day.." Brienne began, fidgeting with her hands.

  
"The other day?" Jaime gave back immediately, throwing her a quick glance, this one not pensive but..was he nervous, too? That didn't bode well. Brienne soldiered on.

  
"If I..said something when we were having that party.."

  
"Wha--" He narrowed his eyes for a second before they became wide. "Oh! Oh, no. Everything was fine. Our little party was fun. I'd do a repeat of it, but I think Bronn is no longer allowed so smuggle in booze for us. Well, that and I don't think I can do two hangovers in one week anymore."

  
"But--"

  
"Brienne, really. Everything is fine. I just have...stuff on my mind. It's got nothing to do with you."

  
Well, she'd tried. It still seemed a funny coincidence though that he'd gotten weird right after their drinking fest. But there was nothing to do but take him by his word. After all, he wasn't the type to lie in order to make others comfortable.

  
"I see. Well, if you want to talk about it.."

  
"Thanks, but it's stuff I have to deal with myself, you know? Outside-world stuff."

  
"O-Okay. If you change your mind, the offer stands, alright? I'm listening."

  
"I'll keep it in mind, thanks. Now: Let's find out if there is a Shitty-Wigs-R-Us store somewhere in Essos. These two can't be coincidence."

  
Brienne shook her head, but said no more. This had gone really well. Not.

  
***

  
"Ya know, I'm startin' to lose hope in the two of you." Bronn announced himself when it was lunchtime. Putting down the trays on the table by the window, he took a long look at the both of them.

  
"I get that y'all are too smart to be caught fookin' when I bring your stuff at the same time every day, but where's the post-orgasmic bliss?" He pointed to Brienne, "You don't look happy."

  
"Leave it be, Bronn." Jaime replied, sounding not amused.

  
"And you? I gotta tell you, Lannister: You don't look relieved, you look constipated."

  
"I said: Leave it be!"

  
"Okay...trouble in paradise, then..." Bronn muttered, raising his hands defensively. Jaime fixed him with a fierce glare. Brienne didn't understand that severe reaction; all of this was nothing they hadn't heard before during the last days.

  
"Don't you get tired of repeating the same jokes over and over again? Because, let me tell you, I am tired of it."

  
"Hmm...actually, no. I really don't. I think I'm hilarious." Bronn replied, with attitude. Before they could get into some sort of male contest of manliness, Brienne decided to intervene. She quickly walked over to the table, sat down and pulled off the lid.

  
"Thank you, Bronn. Uh..that looks and smells..delicious." She declared loudly.

  
Now the nurse turned to look at her as if she'd lost her mind.

  
"Lady, if you like _this_ , I wonder what kind of food yer used to."

  
"No, I think she's right." Jaime said, only to contradict whatever Bronn said, sauntering over and taking his seat, "It's wonderful...is that _chicken_?"

  
Their nurse snorted and turned to go.

  
"Well, by all means, don't let me come between you and your 5-star menu. I'll be back later."

  
As soon as the door closed behind him, Jaime pushed back his plate.

  
"Delicious? This? Right now I really hate to do it, but I'm kinda agreeing with Bronn: What kind of food are you used to?"

  
"There seemed to be a lot of testosterone in the room all of a sudden, I had to say something."

  
"And that was the best you came up with?"

  
"He was just taunting you, you know?"

  
"I didn't like it."

  
"Well, now you know how it feels tobe on the receiving end of that."

  
Jaime didn't answer, but started to prod his food with his fork.

  
"You okay?"

  
"I told you, fine."

  
He put his fork down and sighed.

  
"I can't eat this, I'll go have chocolate instead."

  
Pushing back his chair, he walked back to his bed and pulled the mostly emptied bag of candy from the bedside table, leaving Brienne at the table, confused. She only knew one thing: He was not fine. But as long as he wasn't talking, there was nothing she could do to help.

  
***

  
After filling up on candy, Jaime had 'generously' handed over the tv remote and proceeded to take a nap. Once he woke up from that, he seemed to feel better; at least he acted a bit more like his talkative self and wasted no time trash talking the movie she'd been watching. Still, as dinner time rolled around, Brienne was somewhat apprehensive, wondering if she was going to have run interference again, but both Bronn and Jaime seemed to have completely forgotten about that little tense moment this noon. Or chose to ignore it, anyway. Their nurse put the trays down without any comment and her roommate also didn't smartass at him.

  
"I figured out the problem." Bronn said, turning to leave, "And I solved it for ya. Y'all are welcome."

  
Tipping his gloved fingers against his temple, like a salute, he winked before shutting the door from the outside.

  
"Think he smuggled a burger in for me, because he was being a dick and I was being hangry? Please, let it have extra bacon."

  
Jaime pulled up his tray's cover with a flourish. And froze, the lid still in mid air. A faint blush rose on his cheeks. Brienne hadn't known the man was even capable of blushing. She looked down on his plate as well and within two seconds had beat him in the red cheeks department.

  
Three slices of bread, a tiny package of butter, a tomato and some cheese and, draped nicely along the plate's curve.. one, two, three, four...five condoms.  
Okay, it was unexpected, and a bit much in-your-face for her taste, hence the blushing, but at the end of the day it was just another one of Bronn's ridiculous insinuations. Jaime had always had a comeback for all of them, he was quick-witted. So why wasn't he laughing?


	8. 8 - Day 7

Jaime was confused and he did not like that feeling one bit. He'd spent today, the whole day yesterday and the evening the day before wrecking his brain for any clue what exactly it all meant. Had that boner just been a boner or was it more than that? Was it a general reaction to seeing a naked woman after a long time of not having seen one or was it Brienne-specific? He'd tried to convince himself that it had been one weak moment, something he could file in his brain under 'what happens in quarantine, stays in quarantine'. But if so, why wasn't he filled with relief? He just couldn't figure that one out. He would've loved to be able to simply go for a walk and try to clear his head and maybe have an epiphany while he was at it. It was not that easy to concentrate in their room; Brienne was always around, distracting him. And she'd started to catch on to his brainstorming and apparently-not-so-covert glances, giving him the feeling of being under a magnifying glass. So, the only option to be alone was their bathroom and that was out for obvious danger-of-flashback-reasons. He'd never sped through his cleaning routine as much as the last two days.

  
How was it possible that you saw someone pretty much day in and day out for more than a year and never much reacted in any way towards them or thought much about them, and then suddenly, everything about them was interesting and you found yourself almost incapable of thinking of something other than them?

  
Brienne was pretty much the same; she hadn't woken up one of these mornings and suddenly become better-looking. But while she'd never be 'the pretty one', she was not without allure. Apart from gorgeous eyes, she had an open and honest face. Her mouth was broad, but her lips were full and of the kind other women paid a lot of money for to have a plastic surgeon give them a pair. She had a long and elegant neck and, as he knew firsthand now, legs to die for. She was never going to be a natural entertainer, she was still stubborn and seven out of ten times either didn't get his jokes or didn't find them funny. And yet, since he'd seen her under the shower, Jaime had a hard time looking away from her. Though to be fair, that wasn't the whole truth. He actually would've loved to be able to chalk it up to seeing her naked; physical attraction would've been easier to handle or to suppress entirely. But he'd already started to see her differently before that. Not in the 'Gods, she's got a banging body' way of course, but he distinctly remembered thinking that she was cute during and after their boozy session. That she had impressed him more than once during their stay in this room. That she was, albeit often unintentionally, funny. That she had the kind of eyes you could look into for hours and not realize that any time passed. And the more time he spent thinking about all these things, the more flimsy the excuse of 'it's just because we're locked in together' seemed to become. It was all complicated. Was all that him making something out of nothing because he was bored or whatever, or just simple lust or was it even more?  And which scenario was scarier? Lusting after his colleague or wanting more than that?  

 

  
"Gods, we've been in here for a week now." Her voice broke into his musings. They were lying on their respective beds, with a local news station on the tv.

  
"Yeah, only two days to go. And a good thing, too, seeing as I'm starting to run out of candy fast." And maybe his sanity as well..

  
Jaime was definitely not going to order anything from Bronn again; next time the bastard would probably add a bottle of Braavosi Fly or something else he considered an aphrodisiac in his neverending attempts to 'help them out'.

  
"I will admit to helping with that, but you know, it would last longer if you ate some of the actual food they bring us."

  
"I do. Breakfast and lunch are safe."

  
Dinner here was a different story. It was hit or miss. Sometimes, as he'd learned yesterday, it was indigestible even if the food seemed alright. Those condoms with dinner last night had been too much. They were like a blinking red light, flashing the words "I know what you did" at him, even though he knew neither Bronn nor Brienne were aware of it. There had been painful and awkward silence as they both had stared on his plate and for once, Jaime hadn't even been able to come up with a funny line. Eventually, he'd just snatched them up, put them in his scrubs' breast pocket to have them out of sight and pretended the whole thing had never happened. Thankfully, Brienne hadn't commented on the whole affair either and today, it had been nurse Ygritte again bringing the meals, giving them a respite from their regular nurse's loose lips and saucy innuendos. He just couldn't deal with those anymore. At first, when it was outrageously ridiculous to even entertain the thought of ever seeing his temporary roommate naked, the notorious mouth of Bronn Blackwater hadn't bothered him and seeing Brienne blush because of someone else for a change was like reaping the benefits without having to put in the work. But now, one boner later, things weren't that easy anymore. Dammit! Couldn't she have picked another time to start getting under his skin?

  
This whole dilemma was his own fault. Brienne surely hadn't invited him to peek at her under the shower. He didn't even know why he'd done it; he surely hadn't thought long about it before. In hindsight, he should've done that. It would have saved him the neverending circle of thoughts he'd had been dealing with ever since.

  
"I'll go brush my teeth and get ready for bed."

  
Brienne got up and walked to the bathroom door. Just about halfway, she stumbled over his hospital-issued slippers that he refused to wear on account of them being hideous and that he had 'parked' (thrown) in front of his bed. One of them skidded across the floor a few feet as she caught herself, holding on to his bedframe.

  
"You okay?"

  
"Fine. I told you, you need to put these away."

  
Walking over to the second slipper, Brienne, with an annoyed sigh, bent down to pick it up, unknowingly presenting him a perfect view of her ass again. Of course, Jaime's traitorous brain immediately flash-backed to the view under the shower two days ago. There was a throb, a twitch and a rush of blood and just like that, albeit slower than the first time, Jaime could feel boner #2 rising under the thin blanket. She wasn't even naked, for the Seven's sake! While he couldn't make himself look away, Jaime at least had the presence of mind to quickly prop up his feet and draw his knees up, so that his predicament wasn't visible in case she turned in his direction. Which he really hoped she wouldn't, because he didn't think he could pull off the nonchalance needed right now. When she rose again, he quickly looked away and pretended that report on grain harvest in the Reach was the most interesting thing he'd seen in a while, silently praying to whoever might be listening that she wouldn't notice anything. As soon as the bathroom door closed behind her however, he exhaled loudly and looked down at himself.

  
Apparently, his dick had finally chosen to participate in his brainstorming and spoken up by giving him this signal. One may have been a fluke, but two were no coincidence. This was the first time in a long time he'd reacted this strongly to a woman, and he just couldn't ignore that. Those boners didn't lie. They wanted Brienne.

  
Well, that answered one question anyway. What to do with that knowledge though? He wasn't the type for a friends-with-benefits thing, never had been, and he had the strong suspicion neither was Brienne. He'd also never seen much appeal in sleeping with someone he barely knew just because it was offered or because he was single and could. It was no wonder his younger brother had slept with more women by the time he'd been nineteen than Jaime had in his whole life. Not that he was a prude or had low libido; he liked to think he was quite creative in the bedroom and liked orgasms as much as everyone else. He just preferred it when there were genuine feelings involved other than being horny, so his experiences outside of committed relationships or at least exclusive dating were few and far between. But thinking about that was running before walking anyway, wasn't it? There was Brienne to consider as well. Not knowing if she could ever be interested in him like that, was it even smart to entertain the thought of them potentially being..something..or was it better to nip it in the bud while he still could?

  
There was another throb in Jaime's pants, and it seemed to him it was his dick giving a sound veto on the nipping in the bud. The rest of him was eager to agree. Well, there was no brushing it aside anymore, no made up reason to hide it behind: Somehow, someway, he had developed  genuine feelings for the woman and his boners hadn't been the first sign of attraction, just the latest. It dawned on him that this may even be going on a lot longer already than one might think, too. Why else would he have gone out of his way to seek her out at work, to make her blush and fumble with words? It wasn't like he had tons of free time during a shift, and it had never been about wanting to bully her. Why else would he have felt bad when she'd told him it wasn't funny to her to be teased? Because her opinion of him mattered to him and he'd never meant to hurt her. Why else would he wax poetic in his mind about her eyes and smile to himself over her cute drunk self? Or dislike the idea of going back to business once the quarantine was over?

  
Right. Maybe it was not the most objective decision ever, what with it having been made while having a hard-on, but Jaime was tired of going in circles with his questions and what-ifs. Maybe something would come from it, maybe not, but he was intrigued to see what they could be and was going to find out where she stood on the matter. Subtly. He was going to try and woo her into going out with him. He was going to..well actually, he had no idea. Flirting was not his forte; in fact, his brother loved to tease him about the fact that the Gods had seen fit to give him his face and body and 'no game'. Plus, as he'd already determined, he needed to go about this very subtly, carefully. If Brienne had no interest in him, those last two days could become very long, should he make his intentions clear. And they'd still have to work together once they were released.

  
It would come to him, once he could think clearly again. First, he needed to will another boner away in what little time remained before Brienne came back.


	9. 9 - Day 8

"Hey, didn't you say the other day you grew up on an island?"

  
"Hmm?" Brienne hummed, not looking away from the tv where she could just see a map of the summer isles. It was the weekend and therefore the trash tv shows, that she'd actually meanwhile had developed some mild interest in, weren't on air. While clicking through the channels Jaime had come across a documentary about the middle ages and Brienne, a leisuretime history nerd, had asked him to watch it. He had, oddly enough, agreed without complaining or whining and she'd been immediately engrossed by the tales of knights and swords and battles.

  
"You grew up on an island?" He asked again.

  
"Yeah. Tarth. It used to belong to my ancestors a few centuries ago, hence it having the same name as I do; nowadays my dad only owns a house with a middle-sized backyard."

  
"What's that like, Tarth? I've never been."

  
Boy, Jaime sure had a lot of questions today. While it was nice to see that he apparently had come out of whatever funk he'd been in, he still wasn't quite 'right'. Brienne couldn't put her finger on it, but he seemed almost too..chipper. Everytime she looked at him, he was smiling. He'd gotten downright clumsy in his exuberant anticipation of their release in about 48 hours and had dropped at least 5 things already today. And he'd been bombarding her with questions all morning. _What was her favorite movie? What kind of music did she like? What was her favorite work-out routine? Where exactly was she from anyway?_

  
She didn't really mind answering. He seemed to honestly listen to her replies and that was..well, nice. Most of the time, people didn't care past a polite reply. Jaime gave her his undivided attention. It had been a while since someone had done that and it was a welcome change. Not that Brienne was someone seeking the spotlight or anything, but every now and then it was pleasant to have it confirmed someone actually was interested in her thoughts.

  
Since the documentary had just gone to commercial break, she described her home island to him and expanded on some details when follow-up questions came. At some point, Jaime reclined from his cross-legged sitting position, turning to her side, head propped on one hand and eventually Brienne mimicked his position. The documentary was long muted and forgotten as they swapped childhood stories about their upbringing by the seaside, albeit on different ends of the continent. Jaime was a captivating storyteller, funny and animated. His eyes were sparkling as he told her about how his younger brother had one day decided to find actual gold in the old and abandoned mines surrounding their hometown and how Jaime had finally hidden some rocks, spray-painted in gold, for him to find when the little brother had gotten more and more disappointed about coming back empty-handed every day. The plan had backfired insofar that Jaime's brother immediately saw through it, apparently he'd always been smarter than was good for him, but Brienne thought it had been a sweet gesture nonetheless. In return, she told him the story of how she'd wanted to become a knight when she was little, even going to far as to write her name as Brienne _of_ Tarth and looking for a knightly quest wherever she went. The big day had finally come when the neighbor's cat had disappeared and little Brienne took off to look for it. The cat had climbed up a tree down the street and apparently wasn't all that happy about a little knight coming to rescue it, since it clawed at her rescuer's arms something fierce. In the end, all Brienne had gotten for her troubles was a tetanus shot and a sprained ankle from having jumped down from the tree, sans cat. Jaime laughed heartily at the conclusion, but it felt like he was laughing with her, not at her. They were honestly having a great and relaxed time, and once more Brienne was reminded that Jaime actually was really likeable.

  
  
"And your father? What does he do?"

  
"He's a police officer, well, captain really. Other than that, he does a lot of fly fishing."

  
"Police, huh? That must have been fun for your high school boyfriends."

  
Brienne barely suppressed a snort. As if there had been any of those. The first one had happened in college, far away from home and the idiots in school that thought they were so clever for picking on her. She chose to merely shrug in response, let him think what he wanted about her romantic endeavours. And apparently, he wasn't done thinking about it yet.

  
"Does he give them a hard time? The men you're dating?"

  
"Not really. We live so far apart these days, he hardly ever gets to meet someone."

  
"Right. You said you weren't dating anymore, because all of us manfolk are dicks."

  
"I never said that!" Brienne sputtered. Jaime just waved her off.

  
"Fine, I rephrased it, but the message was the same."

  
"It was not. I mean..yes, I said I'm not going out right now, but it's not set in stone or anything. I also do not think that all men are the same; if I meet someone I'm interested in, I'm open to going out with them. It's just..with the job there's little time for anything else..you know how it is."

  
"You could meet someone on the job." He suggested.

  
"I would never!" Brienne said with conviction.

  
"Oh?" Jaime replied, his eyebrows rising high at her vehemence. Obviously this had not been an answer he'd expected. He'd probably never given much thought to a proper doctor-patient relationship and that flicker of disappointment she thought she'd seen on his face was him disapproving of her disapproval.

  
"Going out with a patient would be completely inappropriate and--"

  
"Oh! Not a patient." Jaime interrupted, which seemed to be something he generally liked to do,  "Gods no. I meant a hospital worker. In fact, someone from our field of business might even be the best scenario. We understand the hours, we get the stress and everything.."

  
"Yeah..I don't know.."

  
"Just throwing that out there. I mean, there was a wedding only last week of two people working here."

  
"Gilly and Sam.. Oh Gods, that health scare must've ruined their reception what with half their guests probably being paged to come in."

  
"It was probably alright. I like to think the two of us handled things just fine. The fact that they didn't roll another roomie in for us these last few days supports me. Kind of. Besides, gossip central would've told us. Anyway: So what'cha looking for?"

  
"Huh?"

  
"In a man."

  
"Oh."

  
"I mean, now that we're friends and all, I might know just the right guy for you if I know what to look for.." Jaime hurried to say, "I've been here a lot longer than you after all."

  
"Oh, I..I really couldn't say."

  
"Sure you can."

  
"No seriously, I can't. I don't have a type."

  
Which may not have been quite the truth, but she didn't really want to continue with that topic.

  
"Right. Fine. Okay. Let's start with both ends of the spectrum and work from there. Say you had to date either.. Tully or...hmm..well, me. Who'd you pick?"

  
"Doctor Tully is married."

  
"He is? That poor woman." Jaime replied in an aghast tone, his face the epitome of 'grossed out'.

  
"Why do you hate him so much?" Brienne tried to finally change the subject of their conversation.

  
"Hating him would imply I have strong feelings about him which I don't. I don't like him because he's a pushover and a spineless imbecile.. Wait: That means I win by default, right?"

  
"Wha--no! I did not say that" She declared loudly, bolting upright.

  
"It's okay. I can read between the lines." Jaime grinned at her, and waggled his eyebrows.

  
"Y-You presented me with a hypothetical scenario. Okay. Fine: I choose Tully. Hypothetically." She stated, crossing her arms in front of her chest.

  
"Liar liar, scrub pants on fire." He taunted. And he was right, of course. Not that she'd tell him.

  
"I'm not lying! Doctor Tully is very distinguished and--"

  
"Lame is the term you're looking for."

  
"Maybe I like lame?" Brienne stated primly.

  
"No, I don't think you do. You're in the wrong line of work for that."

  
"All the more reason. Work is hectic enough, maybe I want peace and quiet when I get home and you hardly ever shut up, so I guess it's Tully all the way for me."

  
"Ouch, that wounds me."

  
"You'll live."

  
"I can be quiet if I want to, you know?"

  
"It was just a hypothetical scenario!"

  
"I don't feel the need to carry on a conversation at any cost.."

  
"Clearly. That's why you're still babbling." Try as she might, Brienne could not suppress a tiny smile.

  
"I'm just saying..a man doesn't like to lose against a wet trout and this could have serious repercussions on my fragile psyche. I mean--"

  
"Look! Documentary on medieval medicine. Let's watch that, shall we?" Brienne interrupted him for a change.

  
"But I--"

  
"This would be a great opportunity for you to prove you can actually shut it for a prolonged time."

  
"Fine." Jaime huffed, turning to lie flat on his back again, "I'll show you."

  
He unmuted the tv and grumbled something that sounded like "Tully-lover" under his breath. Brienne shook her head, letting her smile get wider when he wasn't looking in her direction anymore. His pouting was completely and obviously fake but quite cute.

  
What a difference a week made. The man she was now sharing this room with was so different from the one she thought had moved in here with her. Sure, Jaime still had his big mouth, but he was genuinely friendly with her, he was funny and attentive, and Brienne more and more came to the conclusion that, as long as he was not in roaring-lion-work-mode, it could be quite pleasant to hang out with him.  
  
This quarantine couldn't end soon enough. The last thing she needed was to develop a crush on a colleague that would never amount to anything but tense moments at work, and she felt she was *this* close to develloping one.

  
  
***  
True to his word, Jaime had kept silent throughout most of the documentary on medicine 500 years ago, apart from the occasional comment on past treatments and how they had it so much better today which she could only agree with him on. In any case, the topic of men and dating hadn't come up again for which Brienne was thankful. Eventually, nurse Ygritte brought their dinner and Jaime even deemed it edible today so he joined her at the table.

  
"Can't believe we'll be out of here the day after tomorrow."

  
"That's always how it goes. Just when vacation starts to get good, it's over."

  
"What happens when we leave?" Brienne finally asked the question she had pondered quite some time over the last few days, the more they began to get along.

  
"Well...I don't know about you, but I'll fall onto my bed and not leave it for the foreseeable future."

  
"No, I meant at work. Are you going to be yourself or...well..your other self? What I mean is, do I need to prepare myself for getting called doctor wench again? Or worse?"

  
"You mean, are we still going to be..friends?"

  
"Yeah."

  
"Sure. You have blackmail material on me now. I told you about my date with Sheila the callgirl."

  
"I would never--"

  
"I know that. It was a joke. Relax. It's gonna be fine. You said it yourself: I may be assy but I'm also nice."

  
"Oh. That's good to know then."

  
"Unless of course--" He began, and Brienne interrupted with a roll of her eyes.

  
"Unless I deserve getting yelled at. I remember."

  
"Excellent. Now for dessert."

  
Walking over to his bed and the now very meager looking plastic bag, Jaime pulled out a candy bar.

  
"Here" He called, tossing it at her.

  
"Thanks."

  
"We're officially out of stash now."

  
"Don't you want to save the last one then for yourself?" She asked, holding the candy out to him.

  
"Nah, I'm good" He waved her off.

  
"Seriously, I can't in good conscience...here." Taking her knife, Brienne cut the candy bar in two halves and carried them back with her to the bed area.

  
"Halfsies, okay?" She said, holding out one half to Jaime who was fluffing up his pillow. He turned around with a look of surprise that quickly morphed into a warm smile.

  
"Thank you" He said quietly.

  
As he took the half from her hand, Brienne could've sworn he squeezed her fingers for a split second. Either that, or he had a higher temperature after all, because her fingers became all warm and tingly.

  
"S-Sure."

  
She quickly turned to her own bed, putting her half on the small table beside it and busied herself with making her pillow and blanket fluffy. Jeez, randomly blushing wasn't bad enough already, now she had to also add stuttering to her list of unwanted quirks?!

  
After a few moments she could hear Jaime climbing into his bed behind her.

  
"You know they say the way to a man's heart goes over his stomach..." He began.

  
"Thoracotomy is quicker" Brienne deadpanned.

  
Jaime gave a warm chuckle.

  
"That punchline is even older than me, but when it fits, it fits. Well played. Beats mine of forgiving you the Tully thing for sharing this chocolatey goodness with me."  
And just like that, the awkwardness Brienne had felt the last few moments passed and she rolled her eyes.

  
"Oh not that again!"


	10. 10 - Day 9

This wasn't exactly working as smoothly as Jaime had envisioned it. He'd gotten not one bit closer to finding out whether Brienne had the slightest interest in him. Tons of interesting information about her, yes. They'd had talked a lot yesterday and everything he'd found out about her made him only more determined to go out with her, but nothing that would answer this, most important, question.

  
There had been a moment, when she'd given him half of that last candy bar, when he'd thought there may be an opening, that she maybe wasn't unaffected by him either, but she'd turned away before he could find words to explore that and then the moment had been gone. After all, there were only so many times you could allude to a topic before you became obvious and he'd poked all day already. And that she once more had blushed, well that told him exactly nothing. She did that on a daily basis. Jaime really wished he were better at reading women. He just felt it was superimportant to get to the bottom of this while they were still in here. He may have sometimes been a slow learner, but once he saw the light there was no holding him back. Once their quarantine was over and they fell back into the routines of their lives, the window of opportunity would only become smaller. If she wasn't interested in going out with him, it would be easier to put it all behind him as 'quarantine madness' and move on. Honestly, he had half a mind to bribe whoever walked through the door next to bring him some schnapps, just lay it out there and hope that hard liquor would help out with sweeping it under the rug in case he made an idiot of himself. Since that wasn't an option though, he bit the bullet and went for the next best thing. Waiting until Brienne went for her morning shower, Jaime walked to the phone next to the door and finally, after nine days, picked it up to call his brother, also known as the one man of his acquaintance that could probably charm a Septa into wanting to forsake her vows with him.

  
It hadn't been the easy solution he'd hoped for..

  
_"Hello?"_

  
_"Tyrion, it's me."_

  
_"Jaime! How are you? Are you okay? I've called the hospital a few times but they told me you aren't allowed absolutely any visitors. I did check in via phone, though."_

  
_"I'm good. It's all just one big precaution anyway, I'm healthy as a horse. Listen, I need to talk to you."_

  
_"Yes, of course. I'm all ears."_

  
_Jaime quickly and in a hushed voice related the whole past nine days to his younger brother, starting with getting locked up in quarantine, over gradually realizing his roommate wasn't all that bad, in fact kind of awesome, to the boners and his realization that he was quite ready and willing if something were to happen between him and the woman he was currently sharing a room with but that he needed to feel her out on the matter first before taking any action aka the part he was currently stuck at._

  
_"So you're horny...and?"_

  
_"I am not just randomly horny!" Jaime hissed, unnerved that his brother just didn't seem to get it._

  
_"Are you sure?" Tyrion asked nonplussed._

  
_"Yes I'm sure! You don't recall me ever telling you I've been sporting wood over models on tv or my hair stylist or your girlfriend, do you?"_

  
_"I better not!" His little brother growled, "I'd hate to have to kill you; you're the only one of my relatives I actually like. Well, apart from aunt Genna maybe. She's cool."_

  
_"Dude, Shae used to livestrip on the internet, that's how you met her in the first place. Do you have a deathlist with half the continent on it?"_

  
_"Maybe. But back to your little problem."_

  
_"It's not little."_

  
_"Right. Of course it's not. How very insensitive of me. It's a_ huge _problem. A_ throbbing _problem. A_ rock hard _problem."_

  
_The little jerk really seemed to enjoy this._

  
_"Ha fucking ha."_

  
_"Calm down. So you got a boner over your colleague. It can happen. When you work close together, get along well enough..especially when you're living in close space together.."_

  
_"Have you been listening to me at all? It's not a one-time thing. I thought it was when it happened the first time, but it's happened more than once. It's not a fluke."_

  
_"Well, have you considered to just..you know.."_

  
_"I'm not jacking it in the bathroom." Jaime said with steely conviction._

  
_"I was gonna say, 'just ask her out', but now that you mention it.."_

  
_"Let me repeat: No self-gratification in the bathroom. And I don't want just sex from her! I've told you that already!"_

  
_"That leaves the asking her out route. That's what you want, right? A date? Then maybe she'll help you with the boner. Eventually."_

  
_"But that's just it. I can't just ask. It's not that easy."_

  
_"Of course it is! You walk straight up to her and say ... what's her name?"_

  
_"Brienne."_

  
_"_ Brienne, you and me, dinner friday night at 7. Wear something hot. _And bam! done."_

  
_"Bam! is right. She'd probably slap me."_

  
_"I think I like her already."_

  
_"You are not helping me. Be constructive! I need to know how to find out if she likes me too without making it obvious. Now talk. I don't have a lot of time before she comes back."_

  
_"Alright, alright. Well, assuming you've been your charming self with her, what have you done so far to salvage that first impression and present yourself in the best light?"_

  
_"..I let her have control of the remote."_

  
_"No!" Tyrion shouted in mock outrage. Jaime chose to ignore him._

  
_"And I let her have my last chocolate bar."_

  
_"Wow, do you need me to book a particular sept for your imminent wedding?"_

  
_"Watch the attitude, garden gnome. I happen to like chocolate a lot and it's been basically my food source this past week."_

  
_"What do you mean? I told Bronn to order you takeout and forward the bills to me."_

  
_"That rat bastard! I can't...well, actually I can believe it. No matter. Back to the important stuff. What else can I do?"_

  
_"Compliments are never wrong when you're trying to make a good impression on people."_

  
_Jaime winced. What was he supposed to say? The blue scrubs, you know, the kind you've been wearing all week, really look nice on you today? Your hair looks less of a rat's nest this morning?_

  
_"What else?"_

  
_"Take off your shirt and show her the goods?"_

  
_"This is not a laughing matter!"_

  
_"I hate to break it to you, but if she's not into you, it doesn't matter how nice you are."_

  
_"I know. But it can't hurt to try."_

  
_"The best option really would be to just spit it out. At least that way you know for sure. Fast. Whatever the answer."_

  
_"I understand that, and I would agree, but these are extraordinary circumstances. We work together, if she thinks I'm some old lecher hitting on her, things could get really awkward. And I don't want her to be uncomfortable. I've got to be subtle with this."_

  
_"Well, maybe subtle is not your thing. You are a Lannister, after all. We go big or go home. Seriously: It's gonna be a little awkward anyhow for a hot minute if you end up reading her wrong, which I wouldn't put past you on account of you being a big dummy."_

  
_"For a supposed womanizer you give shitty advice."_

  
_"Ex-womanizer and I give great advice. Like this one: Be open and honest and accept your fate. She's either interested or not and if she isn't, then you're just going to have to live with that and respect it. You're both adults, deal with it, whatever the outcome."_

  
_Jaime sighed. That was not what he had wanted to hear, but Tyrion had a point. He was too old for kindergarten._

  
_"I guess you're right. Listen, I better go now, she usually doesn't need a lot of time in the bathroom. And no word to anyone, or else I will tell Shae you flirt with the waitresses whenever we meet for drinks."_

  
_"Go ahead. Shae knows I can't help being a natural at it and also I'd like to remind you that I am the perfect size to headbutt you in the nuts."_

  
_"I have long arms, you would never reach me."_

  
_"Fuck you too. And good luck. Can't wait to see you again on the outside."_

  
After hanging up, Jaime had sneaked back to his bed, thinking that mayhaps Tyrion was right. Mayhaps it was time to just be upfront about his interest. Stop the kindergarten routine and be a big boy and all that. How to go about that best, though? Only one thing had been for certain: Although it would be only fair, he was not going to show her the goods. That would set them off on the wrong path. And it would be kind of cheating, since he knew he was fine.

  
***  
It was now dark outside and he still hadn't opened his mouth. Well, he'd opened it lots of times to talk to Brienne, but the words to kick off that particular conversation never came. The more hours had ticked by, the more tempting it had become to just 'accidentally' spill something on his last scrub top and then 'unfortunately' be forced to take it off. If nothing else, it could be a conversation starter..

  
Seriously. How hard could it be to tell one woman that you'd developed feelings for her? When had he turned into such a wuss? He was never shy about saying things out loud, ever.

That was the thing, though. Usually, he either didn't care much or had nothing or little to lose. But he really, really wanted to see if this thing with Brienne could lead somewhere and, as unnerving as the not knowing was, it also meant there was hope.

  
Fuck it. He refused to become any more mental over it than he already was. He was going to do it right now. Straightforward. Sitting up, Jaime muted the tv and looked at Brienne.

  
"Uh..remember when you said I could talk to you about whatever's on my mind?"

  
"Of course."

  
"Is it too late to take you up on that offer? Fair warning though: It's about a girl."

  
"Oh." She said quietly, "Uhm..sure. I guess I'm qualified by default on account of being one after all. I'm listening."

  
"Well, there is this woman..uh, obviously, since I already said it was about a girl..and well, she's awesome..and.. and I'm kind of smit---"

  
Before he could finish his sentence, the door was energetically pushed open and as Jaime's head whipped around to look what was happening, Doctor Jon Snow hurried in, panting.

  
"What's going on?"

  
"Catastrophy alert! There was a big explosion and fire in the Great Sept and we're being overrun with patients. They need you on your floor. Both of you."

  
"We're not to be out before tomorrow" Jaime said, already looking for his hideous slippers while Brienne was tying her hair back together. They'd jumped off their beds after Snow's first two words.

  
"It's less than 24 hours from now and all week your bloodwork came back clean. You're good to go. I'm hereby releasing you."

 

  
As they ran to the staircase, not bothering to wait for an elevator, Brienne turned her head in his direction.

  
"Sorry. Maybe we can talk some other time about it?"

  
"Yeah."

  
He'd find her when this crisis was dealt with. And tell her. This time, really straightforward and without stammering.  
  
The ER was chaos. Patients, their families, cops, staff.. crying, screaming, yelling, all of them demanding attention. It was almost unreal to be back after 9 days and jump right into what looked like a war zone. Out of reflex, Jaime brought his hand up to his chest to grab at the pair of gloves Nurse Gilly slapped onto him as she was hurrying by.

  
"Ambulance bay, now. And welcome back!"

  
Kicking his ass into gear, Jaime ran outside just as another ambulance car arrived, receiving the patient. As the paramedic rattled off the vitals, Jaime's eyes spotted Brienne, her hands helping push another gurney with a poor victim  of the Sept fire into trauma room 2 while she listened attentively to what information about her case she was being given. He couldn't believe he'd missed the opportunity to say what he needed to say after all. If he'd opened his damn mouth only five minutes earlier, or ten, or..

  
"Lannister!" a voice called, snapping him out of it.

  
Blinking, Jaime refocused on what was in front of him. Everything else would simply have to wait. Right now, that man with the burns lying on the stretcher was more important than his private life. He pushed the gurney into trauma 1 and put on protective goggles and fresh gloves.

  
"Blood gas with CO level, CBC, PT, PTT, I want that portable x-ray for his chest and spine, put in a foley to get me some UA and urine myoglobin levels. Push 5 morphine and keep the Ringer coming! On my count..1..2..3!"

  
The next few hours sped by. It seemed the string of injured people would never end but eventually, thankfully, it did. It didn't seem that way, judged by the sheer number of patients, but all in all they'd been very lucky. Jaime hoped his streak of luck would continue a little longer. By the time the elevator doors closed behind the last patient that had earned themselves a trip upstairs and prolonged stay, and he had a second to breathe and look around for a certain blonde head of hair to finish a certain important conversation, however, Brienne had already left.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The med lingo Jaime is using is partly taken and re-arranged from ER, episode 2x16 "The healers"


	11. 11 - Day 10

Brienne had fallen asleep the minute her head had hit the pillow. It had been the early hours of morning when she'd made it home after the catastrophy alert and so, by that time, she'd been up for about 24 hours, having had to go from zero to one hundred percent for the last 8 of them. After almost ten days of lounging in her bed and then having to jump right into the middle of the aftermath of a disaster, she had been as exhausted as she hadn't been in a long time. In fact, she hadn't bothered with anything after letting herself into the small apartment, save for taking off her shoes and pulling the bedroom blinds shut.

  
Now, that she had woken up, a quick glance to the alarm clock by the bedside told her it was already in the late afternoon. Still, Brienne made no move to get out of bed, opting instead to snuggle deeper into the pillows, stretch her toes and just enjoy the feeling of warmth and familiarity beneath her a little while longer. There simply was nothing better than lying in one's own bed.

  
Although...in a way, despite of what she'd thought at times during the early days, she was sad the quarantine was over. Their little room on the fourth floor had somehow managed to become a nice home away from home over the course of those 9 days. It had been her first experience of slacking off in..well, basically forever, and once the initial irritation had passed, Brienne would have been lying if she'd said there wasn't anything to be said for relaxing and doing absolutely nothing every now and then. She'd even taken a liking to the kind of tv Jaime enjoyed, as strange as it was. Jaime. He was a lot different than she had believed after having experienced him over the last two years. Or maybe, not that different after all, just not trying to hide those amiable parts of him. He still had had that sense of being in an almost constant state of relaxation, he still had a penchant for silly lines and not taking everything that was thrown at him too serious, but the bite with which he delivered his words that she'd grown accustomed to during work hours had been gone and with that acerbic undertone gone, his jokes had actually been funny, his demeanor hadn't come across as gruff and his company was pleasant. Friendly. She'd gotten along with him a lot better than she would've ever thought in her wildest dreams. Which was confusingly enough also the reason, she, also in a way, wasn't sad the quarantine was over.

  
When he'd asked to talk last night, Brienne hadn't really thought about what to expect, and so she had been open for anything. But when he'd said that his problem was about a woman, out of nowhere there had been a short, disappointed pang in her chest. And that pang was a sign that it was a good thing their living arrangements had ended when they did. Before she would fall for him. Now that he'd made such a different, good, impression on her, it wouldn't be hard at all to do so. Probably had already happened to an extent if she were honest with herself, hence the pang. All the more reason that slam on the brakes in form of their release was welcome after all. There was simply no plausible scenario she could come up with in which Jaime could ever be interested in her. She wasn't beautiful, she was only a resident and hardly accomplished compared with him and she could never even hope to be half as charming as he could be. They'd gone from colleagues that were (more or less) tolerating each other to friends over the span of nine days. That was a lot. Wanting anything more would have been greedy.  
However, no matter how she felt about it in which way, the quarantine was over now. It would've been over today anyway. Now all she needed to do was to get herself under control again in the days until she was back at work, so that no more pangs would be happening. Throwing off the blankets, Brienne finally got out of the warm cocoon her bed was and shuffled to the bathroom for a long and invigorating shower. Time to put it all behind her and return to her life outside of the hospital.

  
***

  
She'd sorted through her mail, called her dad and aired the whole apartment after more than a week of not even opening a window halfway. Two of the potted plants on the livingroom's window sill were looking like they were close to death, and so Brienne immediately gave them some TLC, or well: Water.  
After assessing the fridge, throwing out at least 30 dragons worth of food and wincing while doing so because of the waste, she decided that a trip to the grocery store was mandatory.

  
Just as Brienne was about to look for the shoes she remembered having kicked off somewhere in the vicinity of the front door, the bell rang and when she opened it, a meanwhile welcome face smiled at her through the small gap the door chain allowed. Seeing him, there was another small pang, albeit this one was not a disappointed one, just the opposite. Dammit!

  
"Hey."

  
"Jaime! Wha--I didn't think you even knew where I live."

  
"I have my ways. So..uh..you gonna let me in?"

  
Brienne closed the door, pulled off the chain, and opened again, gesturing for Jaime to enter.

  
"Come in. What brings you here?"

  
Jaime walked into the living room, taking a look around at her modest living space. He let his gaze fall onto her couch and pointed with his thumb and raised eyebrows, as if to ask "May I?". Brienne nodded and he sat down, pulling a backpack from his shoulder before he did and putting it on the floor before him.

  
"Well..I opened my fridge and there wasn't anything in it besides three tubs of yogurt and a variety of condiments and I figured yours must look similar. And since it's high time you got to taste some decent food, I decided to bring you some quality takeout."

  
"Oh" Brienne couldn't help but smile as she sat down on the other end of the couch, "That's very nice of you."

  
"Also, I may have missed the sound of your snores lulling me to sleep. I feel like our separation happened too quick. I may need a transition period."

  
"Does that mean you have your pyjamas in that backpack as well?" Brienne asked, confused. She did not know how she felt about that, positive pangs or not.

  
"No, I don't and I kind of feel dumb for not having thought of it now. I set the DVR to record The Baelish Show before I went to sleep this morning. Thought you might wanna watch it together. The episode is called _Is my tyke a Pyke_?"

  
"More paternity tests?"

  
"You know it."

  
"Okay, let me just get some plates and stuff. Make yourself at home."

  
Brienne quickly went to the kitchen to grab forks, knives, napkins and two bottles of water. Upon returning, she saw that Jaime had unpacked his rucksack and put an impressive assortment of styrofoam containers on her couch table. He'd also taken off his jacket and was sitting in the middle of the couch now, wiping his hands on the fabric of his jeans before running them through his hair and for some odd reason doing a pretty good impression of a nervous person. Then again, when you went to someone else's house for the first time, that wasn't the most unusual behaviour.

  
"It smells delicious" Brienne declared as she handed him one of the water bottles and put the rest of the things she'd brought on the table as well, "what is it?"

  
"All kinds of things from this myrish place round the corner of my apartment. I didn't know exactly what you liked, but then again, you didn't seem very picky."

  
"Not as picky as others in any case." She replied as she sat down. A lot closer to him, now that he'd gotten comfy in the middle of the medium-sized couch. He'd obviously indulged in a shower with his own products as well, and, even hungry, Brienne had to admit it: He smelled even more delicious than the food.

  
"Touché" Jaime opened his bottle and held it out in her direction. "Here's to our freedom."

  
They clinked the plastic bottles together before digging into the food he'd brought. After the bland hospital cuisine of the last week, Brienne was hard-pressed to stop herself from giving a quiet moan as the combination of flavors hit her tongue. This was so good.

  
"I am somewhat surprised to see you here. I thought you'd probably had your fill of me for the moment."

  
"Nah, I.." Jaime trailed off, before clearing his throat, "Well, here's the thing: I had way more fun in quarantine than I thought possible. And that's because of you. And I think we should maybe make this a regular thing."

  
"Getting locked in together?"

  
"Getting to ..hang out together."

  
"That.. would be nice."

  
"Well that's.. good.. then."

  
"Should I put the DVD in now?"

  
"Sure. Go ahead."

  
***

  
They watched the episode while feasting on the delicious takeout Jaime had brought with him. The more time passed, the more fidgety he became and it was probably the first time since they'd began watching tv together that Brienne gave more comments on what they were watching than he did. A lot of tykes turned out to be Pykes..

  
As the credits were rolling, Jaime asked if he could use her bathroom and Brienne pointed him in the right direction before taking the empty containers and their plates to the kitchen to do a little clean up. Then she sat down again and waited for him to return, wondering what was going on with him yet again. After all, he'd invited himself here, not that she minded, so he should've been enjoying himself a little more and not exude an air of nervousness that gave off the vibe he was being highly uncomfortable. Maybe it was that woman problem that kept his mind occupied, and if she were completely honest with herself, Brienne would've rather he wouldn't bring that up again. She'd jumped at the chance to leave the hospital before he could pick up that conversation this morning. Maybe she'd be ready for that in a few days or weeks, when she'd had time to gain some distance.

  
"Did you want to watch something else? I don't have Trident Prime or Wesflix, but I have the Pirates of the Sunset Sea box set..or Dead bards society?" She asked when he finally returned, to prevent any talk about things she didn't want to talk about but maybe still keep him a little longer, and Brienne was pleased to notice he had no intentions of leaving just yet, since he plopped down right next to her again.

  
"Uh, sure. Yeah. But let's not watch the pirates. That flamboyant captain always reminds me of our wonderful nurse. He actually had a phase when he wore guyliner, you know? I've seen the pictures. Rumor has it he even sang in a retro goth band."

  
Getting up and walking to her bookshelf to pick up the movie and switch discs, Brienne knew she would never see Bronn with the same eyes again.

  
  
The teacher in the film had just given his famous ' _seize the day boys, make your lives extraordinary_ ' quote when Jaime seemed to take a really deep breath and turned to her.

  
"Brienne? Can I ask you something?"

  
"Of course" She replied, dreading that it would be him asking to continue with the girl talk he hadn't really begun before they'd been interrupted by doctor Snow. She paused the film and turned to face him as well, and found that Jaime was looking at her with an expression she'd never seen on his face. The smile he gave her was almost bashful.

  
"Uh...so..have I suffiently proven by now that I can keep quiet?"

  
Okay. That she had not expected.

  
"Huh?"

  
"You said you wouldn't pick me over Tully because I'm a babbler."

  
"Oh no, you're not going to start with that again, are you?" She groaned, shaking her head. When she looked at him again, Jaime was fixing her with an intense look.

  
"Afraid I have to. Because I really, really want you to pick me over him. In fact, I want you to pick me over anyone, really."

  
"I don't think I understand.."

  
"To be honest, for the longest time I didn't understand it myself, but as it turns out, I seem to have caught something while we were locked up after all: A severe case of Brienne-itis."

  
"Brienne-itis?" She repeated, dumbfounded.

  
Jaime nodded and put his hand over hers that was lying on the backrest of the couch. Her hand immediately began to tingle. And this time she was definitely sure that no one was running a fever. At least not one that had medical causes.

  
"And although there is no cure as far as I know, I wouldn't want it anyway if there were."

  
For the moment, Brienne chose to ignore that, even though not with ill intentions, but nevertheless, he had compared her to a disease. There were more important things to focus on.

  
"But..you said.. there was a.. woman and.."

  
"There was. There is. You."

  
Brienne didn't say anything, she was busy trying to make sense of what he was saying. Jaime's hand squeezed hers and her gaze snapped to it. That tingling didn't let up. It was somewhat distracting and she really felt like she needed her brain's attention somewhere else right now, but couldn't bring herself to take back her hand.

  
"I didn't know what to say and how to say it best; it would have been unfair to spill it all to you while you had no chance to get away from me had you'd wanted to, but I know I have to say it now. Seize the day and all that. I am sorry if you feel it is unfair of me to do so now, in your personal living space, but I don't want to spend an unhealthy amount of time wondering what might have been because I chickened out telling you. I did try to be covert but that didn't work so well and then I was advised to just be open and honest and go big or go home. So, I'm asking you to give me a chance. Us. One date and if you don't see anything possible between us, I'll totally back off and we can still be friends."

  
"Can we?"

  
Just when Brienne had determined to beat any notions of crushing on him out of her head earlier in the day, Jaime had completely and utterly surprised her with his declaration. He made it sound so easy, too. Like no harm could come from one tiny date. She wanted to say yes, she wanted to find out what they could be, but what if they didn't work out? What if it ended with her falling and him walking away? All the reasons she'd given herself this afternoon for why nothing would ever happen between them still applied after all. Could she still be his friend then? Could he be hers?

  
"I'm sure of it. You don't have to feel bad if you're not feeling it, and as for me..well, let's just say making an idiot out of myself in the name of love is not foreign territory to me. Neither is rejection for that matter. But perhaps that's not something I should be mentioning right now..when you haven't answered yet."

  
Brienne blinked a few times. He'd said _love_.

  
"Look" Jaime continued into the silence,  "I'm a horrible dancer, I hate the entire back catalogue of showtunes by Walder Frey with the fiery passion of a thousand suns and I have a lucky hat that I must wear whenever the Lannisport Lions make it to the playoffs, but as for the rest I think in the time we've known each other you've seen the best and worst of me. So, what do you say?"

  
"..The Lannisport Lions haven't made it to playoffs in 12 years." Brienne heard herself answer, not believing that her stupid brain had decided to focus on answering that part of Jaime's speech.

  
"Which goes to show you may not see my hat for a long time. And as much as I'm excited about finding out you're into sports, I kinda really need to know what you think now."

  
Brienne finally moved her hand. She turned it around so that their palms were touching and squeezed. She decided to be greedy. Maybe she'd fall and crash, maybe not. But she'd never find out unless she jumped. So she did.

  
"I think you've got yourself a date."


	12. Epilogue - Day 837

Day 837

"Hey you! Slick looking med student!"

  
"Ser, you can't be behind these doors! Please return to the waiting area, the surgeon will come to talk to you as soon as they can."

  
Making a mental note that he really needed to work on his rep more if there were still people working in this hospital who had no clue who he was, (the fact that he was wearing his own clothes didn't count, after all, he never wore a lab coat during work either), Jaime ignored the arm that was pointedly showing him the door he'd just come through two minutes ago in search of his girlfriend.

  
"Doctor Tarth. Where is she?"

  
"Ser.."

  
"Yeah, yeah, I know. But guess what: If you tell me what I want to know, I'll probably go away."

  
"I think she's on break. I can go look for--Ser!" Student guy interrupted himself when he saw Jaime taking off in the direction of the surgical doctor's lounge.

  
"I said _probably_!" Jaime called over his shoulder.

  
Pushing open the door, he immediately saw the woman he had been looking for filling out some paperwork in the corner. He was just about to go to her, maybe surprise her with a kiss on that delectable long neck of hers, when he felt a presence in his back and a hand clamping down on his shoulder, holding him back. Aw hell no.

  
"I'm so sorry, doctor, he wouldn't listen." Over-eager suck up of a med student called from behind right into his ear. Brienne looked up from her work, her brows rising at the sight of Jaime trying to shake off the offending limb and the student hanging on.

  
"It's alright, Ed, you can let go. That's my boyfriend." She declared, standing up. "Edric Storm, Jaime Lannister. Edric is a 3rd year student. Doctor Lannister is an attending in the ER downstairs."

  
That introduction did the trick and the hand left his shoulder in record time so that Jaime could finally walk up to his girlfriend who met him halfway.

  
"Oh gods, sorry doctor." Ugh. Was the moron still here?!

  
"No harm done, Edric was it? Nice name, easy to remember. I'll be looking forward to seeing you again when it's time for your rotation on my floor..Edric." He sprinkled that barely concealed 'your ass is mine' with a knife-like smile and was pleased when saw the student pale. Always good to know you hadn't lost your touch..

  
"Jaime.." Brienne warned.

  
Oh right. Probably shouldn't have said that in front of the world's most finely tuned moral compass. Still, he saw a lot of urine sample collecting in young Edric's future. Ever since Brienne had deserted him at work, he'd been forced to find some fun in other ways.

  
After the smashing success of their first date, Brienne had granted him a second one and so on. They'd been indoor rock climbing and she'd just crushingly beaten him in a race climb when he'd kissed her for the first time. The moment their lips had touched, Jaime had known he was a goner for her and thank the Gods, Brienne felt the same way about him. Soon after they'd become an official couple, however, Brienne had started to mention that, long-term, it was not going to do to work together while being together and Jaime had, of course, disagreed. Theirs was hardly the first workplace romance ever to occur. Still, the longer they were together, she'd insisted more and more. Especially after certain declarations of love had been made on both sides. Something about not being joined at the hip 24/7 and wanting to avoid rumors of preferential treatment. In the end, she'd stubbornly went and transferred to become a fellow in the surgical department at the end of the clinical year. And it actually suited her; one case at a time, working in a team during operations, being able to follow up after treatment. She had already been a pretty good emergency doctor, but she was going to be an outstanding surgeon. The job was perfect for her, she was happy as a clam doing it and therefore Jaime felt he couldn't be too disappointed over losing the opportunity to sneak off and make out during night shifts when nothing was happening. She probably would never have gone for that, anyway.

  
The student had meanwhile finally snuck off, leaving them alone, and Jaime used their being alone in the lounge to lay a smacking kiss on Brienne's lips. And then another. Just because.

  
"I've paged you five times." He stated with a small pout when they finally parted after kiss no 4 or so.

  
"I'm not on call for the ER today, so I figured it was something personal. And since I was up to the wrists in someone's bowels--"

  
"Eww."

  
The look she threw him translated pretty much to _'bitch please, that's nothing and you know it!'_ , not that she'd ever call it that. Unless he brought alcohol into it, she still wasn't much of a cussing person.

  
"--at that time, I decided you had to wait. And I was going to call you back, I just wanted to do my post-op notes first real quick." She added apologetically.

  
"It's fine. It's just..you missed out big time. You're not gonna believe whom I've treated today!"

  
"Whom?"

  
"Petyr Baelish himself! 3 inch laceration on his forehead."

  
"Oh my!"

  
Watching the recordings of the most awesome because most messed up trash talk show in the universe was still something they did regularly in the evenings when they were both home. Jaime took a certain amount of pride in having converted Brienne into a regular watcher, although she saw and treated it more as a well acted out comedy program.

  
"I know! Flying chair hit him during the taping of his show. I paged you to come down and meet him, but now you've missed your opportunity."

  
"Too bad. I would've loved to ask him a few things."

  
"I got you his autograph. Well, it says _To Jaime_ , but we can share it."

  
"How very generous of you" Brienne chuckled.

  
"Don't act so surprised, I am a very generous man. Or do you need a repeat of last night to remind you?"

  
As expected, the blush that she would never be able to get rid of and that he would miss horribly if she ever did, appeared on her face. Meanwhile he knew firsthand that it could even spread all the way to her sternum.

  
"I think I still remember" she finally conceded, before a mischievous look came over her, "Faintly. I may need a refresher later."

  
Gods, he loved her even more whenever that playful side came out. It had taken him a while to discover it, but the finding had been a most welcome, awesome, surprise.

  
The whole past two years had been awesome. Really, getting locked up in quarantine had turned out to be the best thing to happen in his life. Brienne and him fit together almost perfectly, she got along famously with Tyrion, and boy if Jaime himself wasn't one blissfully happy camper ever since she'd begun helping him with his boners. Brienne wasn't half as shy as one would think upon meeting her when she was with someone she felt secure to be herself with and it still occasionally awed him that she considered him to be that someone.

  
Sure, there had also been fights. They both had their opinions and convictions and stuck with them. She put a capital S in stubborn, which occasionally clashed with the capital P he himself put in pigheaded. They had to learn to leave work at work and their private lives at home but they had made it work. All in all, life was pretty damn good these days.

  
"That can certainly be arranged. You know where I live."

  
They'd moved in together shortly after their first anniversary, and now that they'd just celebrated their second one, they were about to go on a vacation on Tarth. They'd been there a few times already, and Jaime honestly considered Brienne's home island one of the most beautiful places on earth with its white sandy beaches, crystal clear waters and lush greenery. Meanwhile he even got to enjoy being there; the first time he'd been too nervous because it had also been the first time he'd met Brienne's father. The man was a cop, after all. Cops had guns. In the end, he'd fretted over a big, fat nothing. Selwyn Tarth was happy when his daughter was happy and that Jaime was making her happy was all he needed to know in order to like him. Still, Jaime was positive all that internet research on fly fishing he'd done in preparation could come in handy one day. After all, in his line of work you never knew what came through the doors next.

  
"Are you still off at 6? We'll make the plane?"

  
"Yeah, shouldn't be a problem" Brienne nodded.

  
"Excellent" He leaned forward for a goodbye kiss before walking to the door.

  
 "Then go finish your homework. I'll be back later to pick you up."

  
"You still need to pack, huh?" Brienne called after him. It wasn't really a question.

  
"Among other things." Jaime replied with a wink before he left.

  
Other things included picking up the engagement ring from the jeweler's after having it fitted to Brienne's size that he was going to propose to her with by a lovely waterfall on Tarth. But she didn't need to know that just yet..  
  


**Notes for the Chapter:**

> And that's the whole of it!  
> Thank you for coming on this trip with me, for reading, for the kudos and comments. I hope you had fun :)  
> Happy JB week!


End file.
